the goan I network
PANAJI
Indian roller skaters produced a record haul of 49 medals, including 13 gold medals, at the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Abu Dhabi. Goa’s Harshad Gaonkar was one of the stars of the show as he bagged two gold in 300m and 500m races.
However, there was much for the Indian roller skating officials to ponder after as many as 14 athletes were disqualified. The reason -- the athletes were “too fast” for the liking of the officials.
“Each and every athlete made a 10-second faster round than the average round,” coach Prabhat Sharma, who was himself surprised after the results were announced, was quoted as saying by news website Firstpost. The coach said the roller skating contingent exceeded expectations on the fast wooden courts at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC).
In Special Olympics, the athletes are categorised based on the degree of their intellectual disability, and given the disparity in timings, the technical officials were not impressed. The officials were shocked too and the Indians suffered 14 disqualifications (DQ).
“The timings that we gave before the event were different. The officials told us to make the changes if we see improvements. We changed them but while there were drastic changes in their performance on the court that was beyond our expectations,” Sharma explained. The coach stated that the DQs was a big blow as all 14 roller skaters were gold medal prospects.
Further reflecting on the unusual situation, Sharma said that back in India, the skaters trained on a completely different surface than what skated on in Abu Dhabi. The tracks were surprisingly faster and the players couldn’t figure out how they outperformed most of their opponents. “There is a rule which says if an athlete found cheating will be disqualified. But we did not cheat. It was a faster track. We went and spoke to the head referee, even he agreed. There was a huge difference, that’s all,” Sharma said.
Sharma further explained that Indian skaters used Kota stone courts, a fine-grained variety of limestone, quarried at Kota district in Rajasthan. “There are wooden tracks here. Our athletes found it faster. These wheels are specifically meant for tracks like these hence they were faster. We use courts made of Kota stone and race on a smaller track,” he said.
“Here the size of the court is 100 metres, while in India we only have 60 metre-long courts and the Kota stone tracks are hard tracks. A tile-like marble is used for making interiors. In India, we have to take three turns to finish the race, while here we had to take two turns. That was also the difference,” he concluded.
