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India cries foul

By Our Special Correspondent

BUSAN Oct. 8. It was only talked about in hushed tones so far. The undue advantage that the South Koreans were taking in ensuring a second-place finish behind the unassailable Chinese in the overall medals tally.

But, all that is now into the open with the Indians on Tuesday stopping short of calling the hosts ``cheats''. With every reason too as Nitin Mongia, the leader of the pack in the Ok Dinghy class of the sailing events, was suddenly relegated to the second spot owing to the machinations of the South Koreans in a blatant violation of the rules and regulations.

The sudden outburst by the Indian team management and the coach, Homi Motivala, caused by the disqualification of Nitin in the eighth race held on Monday.

``The Koreans have virtually robbed us of the gold, indulging in such mean ways to ensure another gold for themselves. It is against the spirit of fairplay.''

The protest lodged by the team soon after the race late into Monday evening was not even considered, they said.

``Earlier too, when the Korean sailor, H.C. Jin, had changed his sail without any valid reasons, we had protested then and there. But there again instead of sending our protest to a neutral panel, it was considered by the panel which had two Koreans in it."

The Enterprise coach, Surinder Kumar Mongia, said the change of sail should have been permitted only after notifying all the other sailors involved in the competition. Normally, a notice is pasted on the notice board so that the other sailors are aware of a request from any other sailor to change his sail.

Shaken by the disqualification, said to have been effected for not steering away his boat from a possible collision with his Korean rival, Nitin, a Mumbai-based stock-broker, hardly made any impact in the two races held on Tuesday. In the ninth race, he came in second and in the tenth at the third spot behind Jin and Thailand's Puangnak. He, however, still holds a four-point lead over his Thai rival and is thus assured of a silver behind the Korean.

India also would be in the reckoning in at least three other classes during the final races to be held tomorrow. The other Indian medal hopefuls are Rajesh Chaudhary (Laser Radial class), Ashim Mongia and crew R. Mahesh (Enterprise) and Farokh Tarapore and Vikas Kapila (420).

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