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Milkha expreses concern over deteriorating athletics standards

'Flying Sikh' Milkha Singh today expressed serious concern over the deteriorating performances of Indian athletes in world events and wondered whether there is any organisation in the country which can do a detailed analysis on the abysmal performances.

Milkha, in a statement, said: "Performances by Indian athletes in the seventh World Track and Field Championship at Seville, Spain, had substantiated the fact that performances on home soil was most of the time never repeated in international competitions."

He said either there were some major lapses or wrongs with clocking instruments or measuring tapes. "Shot putter Shakti Singh threw the weight to a distance of 19.85 metres at home but in the world athletic meet his distance was just 18.58 metres."

He said discus thrower Neelam J. Singh covered a distance of 60.28 metres at home, while in the World meet her performance was just 57.05 metres, a difference of more than three metres. The same was the case of the women's relay team, he bemoaned.

Milkha said the Sports Ministry, Sports Authority of India or the Amateur Athletics Federation of India should take the responsibility of checking the marks in the overall interest of the Indian people.

UNI