Lalit Kumar finished first in the men’s 100m race at the Delhi State championships but went home without a medal.
According to official rules, no medals or certificates are awarded in a race conducted with less than 3 participants. And the race in whish Lalit participated had just one – he himself.
Interestingly, 8 runners were officially had to participate but on hearing that dope testers had been sent by the National Anti doping agency (NADA) to take urine samples from the participants, none turned up but Lalit.
A spectator shot a video of just 1 runner taking his mark ahead of the race. He took to social media platform 'X' and wrote, 'Cleaning sports is extremely important. Athletes should never resort to Doping.'
Lalit had mixed feelings about the whole situation. 'I thought it was both funny and sad. It was funny because I knew that I was going to win. But it was also sad because once I knew that the dope testers had come to the competition, I knew why every other runner was not taking part. There were so many of them who took part in the heats but no one apart from me took part in the final. These guys are my seniors. They are supposed to be role models and this is what they are doing,' said Lalit.
'Why wouldn’t I compete? I’ve got nothing to hide. In fact I’ve been hoping dope testers come every year in the past too. I’m really happy that NADA came this year at least. I was very happy when I gave my sample,' he concluded.