51 players caught over-age in biggest talent hunt programme in athletics

Rampant age-fudging continued unabated in athletics as 51 youngsters were found over-aged while another 169 fled to avoid verification test during last month's National Inter-District Junior Meet in Tirupati, which was touted as one of the biggest talent hunt programmes in the world.

A record 4500 boys and girls in the under-14 and under-16 age groups from 494 districts competed in the National Inter-District Junior Athletics Meet (NIDJAM) held in Tirupati from November 24 to 26.

But on the basis of the age verification tests, which included dental examination and Tanner Whitehouse 3 (TW3) procedure, 51 were declared over-age by the Athletics Federation of India while 124 did not turn up at the AFI counter for medical tests after entering their names for the meet.

Another 65 youngsters did not come for the TW3 tests after they turned up for dental examination.

The TW3 test is the scientific way to detect age fraud. During the test, a digital X-ray of the left hand (palm and wrist/lower end of forearm) is taken to determine the bone age. The system comprises the detailed analysis of the two most important bones in TW3: the radius and ulna wrist bones.

"We first called the athletes for dental examination, that is the number of teeth of an athlete, which is never conclusive. So, we do TW3 procedure and based on the digital result from the laboratory, the age of the athlete is calculated," Rajiv Khatri, AFI's in-charge for age verification of athletes, told PTI.

Rajasthan contributed the most number of over-age athletes -- 15 -- while Uttar Pradesh came second at 10.

The offending state units may face the heat from the AFI which had proposed in its Annual General Meeting in Agra earlier this year to suspend the secretary of the association if more than two athletes are found to be over-aged in a national event.

"I have been in this job for around two years and our team picks the young athletes who we think may be over-age and put them through these verification tests. We have professional people, including doctors, in our team," Khatri said.

"These 124 athletes did not report to us as they must be fearing that they will put through these tests and get caught. Of the athletes who underwent dental examination (counting the number of teeth), 65 did not turn up for X-ray examination (under TW3 procedure)."