Top athlete Sudha Singh not to run for Uttar Pradesh

RAE BARELI - Asiad gold medallist Sudha Singh, who was ignored by the Uttar Pradesh sports minister at an athletic event Saturday, says she will not to run for the state anymore.

“Enough is enough. What is the point playing for a state where you are not even recognised by your own sports minister?” Sudha told mediapersons at her home here Sunday.

Singh, who clinched the gold in the women’s 3000 metres event at the Guangzhou Asian Games, was invited as a guest at the women’s open cross-country racing that was flagged-off by the state Sports Minister Ayodhya Pal at the Charbagh stadium in Lucknow.

But she left the event midway in a huff after being ignored by the authorities and was kept waiting as the minister arrived an hour late.

“Who is Sudha Singh?” Ayodhya Pal later asked the organisers, within Sudha’s hearing distance.

“I have offers from states like Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to run for them. So I’d rather accept their offer than stay on here,” she said.

Sources said even the the principal and other authorities of Mahavir Prasad Girls College, the event’s organisers, ignored her.

“We are not responsible for the humiliation. As far as we are concerned, we took proper care of the athelete,” college principal Sudha Bajpai said.

However, Singh was in no mood to relent.

“What has pained me that even personalities like Mrs Sonia Gandhi have honoured me, but I have been treated like dirt in my own state”, she said.