Marathon Runner OP Jaisha Fainted At The Finish Line After Indian Officials Failed To Provide Her Water

Who would have thought that after the success stories of Dipa Karmakar, Sakshi Malik and PV Sindhu, another of India's daughters would face such hard luck at Rio Olympics?

OP Jaisha, India's national record holder, was running a tough race when she collapsed at the finish line. The 42.195 km run couldn't have been possible to win without water. But that's exactly what Jaisha missed. Thanks to the apathy of the Indian officials who failed to provide her the crucial drink at the refreshment points.

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"Though there were officials from all other countries to provide refreshments to their runners at designated points - after every 2.5 km - there was no one from India and our desks were empty next to the country's name and flag," said a distressed Jaisha.

The runner finished her race in 2 hours, 47.19 seconds. The wonder woman has clocked a beautiful 2:34.43 seconds in Beijing Worlds in 2015 to finish 18th.

"I don't know how I managed to finish without getting enough water to drink. The organizers provided water and sponge only at 8-km intervals. The water from these stations lasted hardly 500m and it was almost impossible to run after the 30-km mark under the scorching sun," added Jaisha.

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While other runners had the luxury to boost their energy with glucose and honey, the Indian officials couldn't even provide water to Jaisha and Kavita (another Indian runner).

As a result, Jaisha collapsed at the finish line and regained her consciousness only after 2-3 hours. Seven bottles of glucose were administered to her and sticking by her side were fellow runner Gopi T and coach Radhakrishnan Nair.

Jaisha returned to India on Saturday but refused to get hospitalised despite the fact that she ran a fever. "I was OK for the next few days. But now I'm feeling very weak and it will take at least 2-3 months of ayurvedic treatment and massage for my body to recover," said Jaisha.

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According to sources, as per IAAF rules, "It is the duty of the coach and federation officials to assign people for this. One country's athletes are not supposed to drink from stuff kept for others as it could lead to a warning and then disqualification,"

Jaisha also blamed her coach Nikolai for her deterioration at Rio Olympics. "I wanted to qualify in the 1500m (after the Mumbai marathon) but the coach forced me to continue in marathon. Even when I suffered an injury during the training period the coach didn't give me time to recover. Moreover, we always trained early in the morning, first in Ooty and later in Rio. So, it was tough to adjust to the heat here," said a disheartened Jaisha.