Tamil Nadu’s Harshitha saw her campaign at the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships end in heartbreak.
After an extraordinary officiating error forced her to run an additional race, ultimately costing her a place in the women’s 400m hurdles final.
The incident occurred during the heats in Bhubaneswar on Friday, where the championship is also serving as a key selection event for the upcoming Asian Games. Harshitha produced a personal best of 1:01.03 seconds to finish third in her heat and qualify automatically for the final.
Her impressive performance, however, was overshadowed by a startling mistake. While competing in Lane 8, Harshitha discovered midway through the race that the fifth hurdle in her lane had not been placed. With no time to stop, she briefly moved into the adjacent lane to clear the hurdle before returning to her own lane and completing the race.
A subsequent inspection confirmed that Lane 8 had been set up with only nine hurdles instead of the mandatory 10.
Rather than allowing her original performance to stand, officials invalidated her result and directed her to run a solo re-trial on Saturday morning. To regain her place in the final, she had to clock under 1:02.00 seconds without the benefit of competing alongside other runners.
After already racing the previous evening, Harshitha managed 1:02.54 seconds in the time trial, missing the qualifying mark by just over half a second and ending her campaign.
The 18-year-old, who won gold in the 400m hurdles at the India Open U-23 Championships last year, expressed disappointment over the handling of the incident.
“The officials said it was my fault too, as I cleared the adjacent lane’s hurdle yesterday,” Harshitha told NNIS Sports after her elimination.
The episode has sparked criticism over the conduct of the event, with many questioning why the athlete had to bear the consequences of a technical lapse that was beyond her control. The controversy has also put the spotlight on competition management at one of India’s premier athletics meets, with calls for greater accountability from organisers.
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