'Please take your matter to the President of India and just inform him that it should not happen to any other sportsperson again in India,' wrote a distraught fan to Bobby Aloysius after she failed to find a place in the list of Arjuna Awardees on Wednesday.
Shortly after the announcement of the awards, India's record holder in the women's high jump said she is quitting the sport in protest.
'Please don't quit. India needs you. People of India are with you, and this is your greatest achievement. If support from sports lovers and media can bring Dhanraj [Pillay] back to the Olympic hockey squad, it will happen with you too, at least next time,' wrote another fan from Tamil Nadu.
'Always Cheer up. Don't quit,' said another message from Singapore to Aloysius, currently doing her Bachelor's degree in Sports Science from the University of Wales in England.
The ace high jumper won silver medals at the Busan Asian Games in 2002 and the Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad last year, recording her personal best of 1.88m.
"I can't understand the logic by which the committee decided that Madhuri Singh is better than me. I am not against the decision to give her the award. But I can't understand why they felt she deserves it more than me. She has won only two international medals in her life; silver in both, the Asian Games (2002) and Asian Championship (2003)," bemoaned Aloysius.
"I am bitterly disappointed to hear that once again I have been excluded from the list of Arjuna Award winners. I strongly feel that I am victimised once again in the name of technicality, which never helps Indian sports," she said in a statement posted on her web site.
"I think this is the worst experience in my life and I am absolutely devastated by it. This denial is even more painful than my deliberate exclusion from the Bangkok Asian Games and Sydney Olympics," the statement added.
Aloysius was angry that the selection committee once again rejected her nomination on technical grounds.
"The committee said there was no performance from me in 2003, just like the committee for the 2001 awards had stated. What about the Afro-Asian Games? I won silver in that, recording one of my very best performances. It was the same height at which I had won silver in the Busan Asian Games. It was the performance that the gold medallist had recorded in last year's Asian Championships and Bangkok Asian Games.
"Surprisingly, the committee feels that Afro-Asian Games was a regional or local meet. If that was so, then the entire money spent on the Games, which was taken from the taxpayers' pocket, is an absolute waste. Then the organisers of the AAG will have to apologise to the nation for having wasted crores of rupees for a local meet.
"If they can consider only Asian and international level meets, then all the Arjuna Awards, except those won by persons in athletics, shooting and weightlifting, should be taken back.
"How can you give the Arjuna award to hockey players, footballers, and even to Kabaddi players as there was no Asian Games last year? Well, how can you give this award even to cricketers, as only 10 countries are participating in this sport?" she asked.
Arguing her case further Aloysius said: "There is a gold and silver in my name in the Asian Championships, a sliver in the Asian Games, three gold in the SAF Games and all the national and south Asian records in high jump for nearly 10 years. I was one among the only four athletes who had qualified for the Manchester Commonwealth Games from India and I had just missed the bronze there on count back.
"I am the one and only woman high jumper who has won an Asian Games medal and Asian championships medal. Also I am the only one Indian high jumper who has participated in the Olympics.
"The Arjuna award rulebook clearly states though the main consideration is the current year's performance, the committee will consider the last three years' result as well."
Suggesting remedial measures to the system, which even failed to honour 'Flying Sikh' Milkha Singh at the right time, Aloysius said: "Only a proper reshuffling of the existing awards system will help the athletes. First of all, the practice of considering athletics on par with other events must be
stopped. When games such as football, volleyball and kabaddi give just one medal to the nation, athletics gives more than 30 medals.
"It is not fair enough to consider athletics as a single event like these games. Giving two awards each to both athletics and kabaddi is not really fair," she concluded.
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