PANJIM: The Katya Coelho episode has drawn the attention of the State government and a decision is expected today.
Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Govind Gaude on Thursday said, he was following up the matter with the Secretary of Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Delhi.
“I called up Secretary of Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (DYAS). They are finding out and a solution is expected by tomorrow (Friday). I am trying my level best,” he said.
The Katya Coelho drama took another turn when the India Yachting Association secretary Jitendra Dixit said, “Everything is fair. She has not met the government criteria, so this decision was taken. As a Federation, we want everyone we propose, to go. Katya is the only one in her category. In the recent world championships, she did not complete in 12 of her 14 races. Cannot justify that.”
Responding to this, Katya said the allegation that she did not complete the race was false.
She said, “He is referring to the timings recorded in those races and with regards to being ‘the only competitor in her category’, I won five gold and one silver medal in the trials. Most of these trials were held in Mumbai. How did I then win a silver medal if there is just one competitor?”
Dixit in an interaction with another news channel had said, “Katya had no ranking to qualify for Asian Games.”
Katya pointed out that if this was the reason, why wasn’t she or the Goa Yachting Association not told before or prompted even after continuously asking them.
When asked if the qualifying rounds conducted by YAI had no value, she said the RSF female athlete who qualified her last world ranking, was in 2021, whereas the policy states, the ranking should be 12 months to the games.
Katya said that Dixit also made a statement that she was the only sailor.
She said her results are online on the YAI website and shows that TNSA is 400 points behind her, so as a YAI secretary does that mean he doesn’t even know the rankings of top sailors in the country?
Katya said, “I also competed along with the male competitors and have finished before them multiple times. I considered them my competitors because the other women in iqfoil are not even close to me in competition. Iqfoil is a new class and is making its debut in the Paris Olympics. I have been sailing for 15 years but because the class is new, we did not get a chance to compete in a lot of international events. Also, we did not have any funding to compete. I participated in an international championship where I won silver in Thailand and yet this is not being acknowledged.”
