Dipa Karmakar has spent Saturday morning, wiping off tears to put in a three-hour solid training session after she heard her name was scratched out from the Asian Games list along with others. “She told me she wants to be in gymnastics for the next 2-3 years and will not give up despite this. But this decision to randomly pull out some rule to stop gymnasts from going to Hangzhou will destroy Indian gymnastics,” says Dronacharya awardee and renowned coach Bishweshwar Nandi.

Dipa, who finished 4th at the Rio Olympics, said she needed time to compose herself and come to terms with what had happened. Dipa had topped the Asian Games trials but hadn’t competed recently because of a doping ban.

The rule Nandi is talking about is a criteria set on July 10 Clause 1 of which reads: “In individual events during the last twelve months prior to the commencement of the event, the performance of the sportspersons should not be less than the performance achieved by the 8th position holder of the 2018 Asian Games in measurable sports.”

Nandi says the Sports Authority of India Director General is being misled by a person who’s not competent enough to decide the criteria, who pulled out the rule and applied it arbitrarily post the trials. “He claims to be a coach and expert but he’s never coached any real gymnast on the mat. He’s never had a student who’s reached anywhere, and for 25 years he’s been doing a clerical job, but he got to decide who goes and who doesn’t,” the angry coach said. “Indian gymnastics ka satyaanash kar diyaa,” (has been destroyed) he added.

Pranati Nayak, who will travel to China, was given an exemption from the trials based on her performance at the Asian Championship earlier in the year.

“He’s not aware of ground realities. Let this person who applied the criterion get onto the ground, spot talent and coach them to any good level. Then he’ll know how things work in gymnastics in terms of peaking for a competition instead of making up rules arbitrarily,” Nandi raged.

Stressing that Dipa was in good shape, fit and raring to go at the Asian Games, he refuted claims that she had admitted to not being eligible. “They asked us to send an application and give in writing, despite her topping the trials which the federation had informed SAI about. She only wrote the truth that she had been out of competition due to suspension and injury for two years, so she couldn’t fulfill the new criterion of a Top 8 finish in the last two years. How could she when she wasn’t in competition?” Nandi says.