Tamil Nadu’s Harshitha was forced to run alone in a rerun after being disqualified for clearing a hurdle in the adjacent lane when one was missing from her own lane during Friday evening’s heats. | Photo Credit: Special arrangement

Tamil Nadu hurdler R. Harshitha was forced to run the 400m hurdles all by herself on Saturday morning and then failed to qualify for the final at the Inter State Athletics Championships following a bizarre goof-up by officials.

The 21-year-old, competing at her first National tournament, came out to the track at Kalinga Stadium at 9.30am, after the morning session had ended, when all the other competitors had left and video recording of the event had stopped. As she took her place in lane eight, officials made sure every one of the 10 hurdles between her and the finish line was in place.

They had not been as careful the previous evening. Running in a heat of the women’s 400m hurdles, Harshitha cleared the first four hurdles cleanly before finding a clear track where the fifth hurdle should have been. Officials had simply forgotten to place it.

Confused, she crossed over to the adjacent lane, cleared the hurdle there and then continued in lane seven. “Initially when I didn’t see a hurdle in my lane I thought I had gone off the track so I crossed back to the hurdle which I thought was in my lane. It was only after the race when I saw the video that I realised what had happened,” she says.

Harshitha crossed the finish line in 1:01.03. That time would have been enough to qualify her for the final on Saturday evening, but officials soon disqualified her.

“They told me that even if I didn’t have a hurdle in my lane, I was at fault because I crossed lanes. They said I should have continued running in my lane. But all hurdlers have a rhythm. If I missed a hurdle I would have lost my rhythm,” she says.

After a verbal protest, the Athletics Federation of India permitted her to run another race on Saturday morning. But Harshitha was told she needed to run under 1:02.00 to be included in the final.

Even on the face of it, this appeared to be an unfair solution. Harshitha’s heat had been held in the evening. Temperatures at the time of her rerun on Saturday morning were in the mid-30s, with high humidity. In fact, the Odisha government had issued a heat warning for the day. The race was further delayed because of issues with the starter’s pistol and the photo-finish system.

Harshitha, whose personal best of 1:00.3 had come before the Inter State Championships, did her best to finish under the qualifying time she had been given but eventually fell short. She clocked 1:02.54 before collapsing on the track in exhaustion.

Before her timing was officially declared, Harshitha had put on a brave face.

“I decided to take it as if I was running a semifinals. I’m looking forward to running in the final,” she said.

But she also admitted what everyone at the stadium already knew.

“Everyone else (in the 400m hurdles) only had to run two races (heats and finals) but I had to run three races. It’s not fair,” she said.

Published on Jun 27, 2026