AFI clueless if Santhi's a 'male'

New Delhi: The performance of the Indian contingent was at the Doha Asian Games have been tarnished by the revelation that athlete Santhi Soundarajan is not really a women.

Santhi won a silver medal in the women's 800m but after the race it came to light that she failed the gender test.

The Athletic Federation of India (AFI) has asked her to return the silver medal.

Even after CNN-IBN exposed that Santhi had failed the gender test at Doha, the athlete was defiant and maintained her innocence.

"I have not received any information from anyone. So I don't know what's going on. But I am fine and there is nothing wrong with me," Santhi said.

And Santhi had the backing of the Tamil Nadu government, at least for now, who stood by their commitment to give her a cheque of Rs 15 lakh for her Asian Games silver.

But back in Delhi, holes were being punched into that show of bravado.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has swung into damage control mode. It has asked the Athletics Federation of India to return the medal.

"It is an unfortunate thing and we are looking forward to the report by the chairman of the medal commission Dr Manmohan Singh and the Athletics Federation. Meanwhile we have asked the medal to be returned by the athletics federation," IOA secretary general Randhir Singh said.

Sources have told CNN-IBN that the AFI knew about Santhi's situation and still sent her to Doha but the federation denied this.

"She was competing in a number of competitions earlier and now the people are saying whether the federation was aware of it or not. She had earlier participated in the OCA competition. She was not doubted that time," Secretary of AFI Lalit Bhanot said.

The IOA has given its enquiry commission seven days to get to the bottom of the story.

But they should also start looking at why it is always the AFI, which gets caught in such controversies.

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