Clerical error cost K'taka athlete her place at national meet, but an appeal fixed it

Twenty seven-year-old triple jumper Joyline M Lobo name was missing in the final list of athletes sent by the Karnataka Athletic Association to the Athletic Federation of India.
Clerical error cost K'taka athlete her place at national meet, but an appeal fixed it
Clerical error cost K'taka athlete her place at national meet, but an appeal fixed it
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A callous 'clerical-oversight' could have cost this athlete her chance to take part in the National Athletic Championship. But a netizen's campaign, flurry of emails and tweets by high-ranking officials and politicians, ensured that the Sports Minister and the Athletic Federation of India took notice.

Twenty seven-year-old triple jumper Joyline M Lobo found her name missing in the final list of athletes sent by the Karnataka Athletic Association to the Athletic Federation of India. This despite Lobo having cleared all fitness and preliminary tests.

While authorities from the state sports body claimed that her name had been omitted from their list due to a clerical error, the deadline for the final submission of the list by states had ended on June 12th.

"I had even booked my tickets from Mangalore to Guwahati," Joyline said.

When she reached out to the Karnataka Athletic Federation, the authorities claimed it was a 'clerical-oversight'.

"However they also added that they had sent a rejoinder email to Athletic Federation of India admitting the error and asking that my name should be included,” Joyline said.

But authorities of the Athletic Federation of India claimed helplessness, as the petition had arrived much after the deadline for submission by states had lapsed.

Left with no other option, Joyline – who works as an employee at Life Insurance Corporation of India-, tweeted to Minister of State Youth Affairs and Sports Rajyavardhan Rathore.

Joyline’s plea for help was echoed by many others including BJP MP Rajeev Chandrashekar, sports journalist for The Hindu KP Mohan, model Seema Buthello and Nandan Mallya, general secretary of BJP Yuva Morchaamong others.

The appeals worked and subsequently on Friday, AFI authorities reached out to Joyline confirming her participation at the Guwahati games. "AFI representatives asked me to take part in the games at Guwahati," she said.

For Joyline, who according to AFI is among the top three triple jump athletes in the nation, proving her mettle in the National Inter-State Athletic championship at Guwahati is crucial, as it will also serve as final qualifying meet for the 58th edition of Asian Games at Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia that is to commence from 18th August.

In fact in the previous edition of the games at Hyderbad, Joyline had managed to bag a silver medal. 

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