I was not unwell, coach told me not to take part: Khushbir Kaur

NEW DELHI: Axed from the Indian team for the Asian Championships for pulling out of the Nationals here, top woman 20km race walker Khushbir Kaur on Sunday said she had to suffer for no fault of hers as it was her coach Alexander Artsybashev who told her not to take part in the event.

Khushbir and top men's 20km race walker Manish Singh Rawat were axed from the Indian team for the Asian Race Walking Championships to be held on March 20 in Nomi, Japan, after they pulled out of the National Championships here on Saturday at the last minute.

Both Khushbir and Rawat's names were there in the starting list but they chose not to take part in the event, which enraged the Athletics Federation of India bosses who had directed all the athletes to take part in the championships.

Russian-born Alexander, who is set to be shown the door after the Asian Championships, on Saturday told reporters that both Khushbir and Rawat were not well and they were having fever, so they had to skip the National Championships.

But contrary to Alexander's claim, both Khushbir and Rawat said that they were fit but gave different reasons why they pulled out of the Nationals without informing the AFI.

“It is not my duty to inform the AFI. The coach is there for it. We have been training under a coach and please tell me whether I should listen to my coach (Alexander) or to AFI. He (Alexander) told me not to take part in the National Championships,” Khushbir said from her training base in Bangalore on Sunday.