The Indian athletes and their mistreatment by the very authorities that are meant to uplift them, take care of them, provide them the resources and avenues to hone their abilities so that they can bring honour to our country is a topic as old as time.
Which is perhaps the saddest sentence regarding Indian athletes that can be said.
The double standard is even clearer and perhaps a bit infuriating when these same authorities, along with politicians, suddenly pop out of nowhere to heap praises on athletes, when, despite all their obstacles, they still claim victory in international competition, raising the Indian flag.
Suddenly they have money, promises of jobs and better facilities and of course posts about boasting how these athletes overcame so many obstacles and symbolise the Indian spirit.
Well, they wouldn’t have had to go through so many issues if the Indian sporting authorities actually did the work they were supposed to, now would they?
A recent video going viral of two pole vaulters, who, just hours earlier, had shattered the national record at a federation competition and earned qualification for the Commonwealth Games, and were now sitting precariously on an electric rickshaw, just stresses this further.
Their five-metre fibreglass poles extending over the sides of the tiny vehicle, trying to keep them balanced as the e-rickshaw trundles along a road in Ranchi, was a sad sight to see.
This is how gold and silver medallists in the men’s pole vault returned to their hotel after the 2026 Federation Cup. Not in a bus arranged by the organising federation. Not in a vehicle provided by the Athletics Federation of India.
In an e-rickshaw, they arranged themselves because nobody else did.
What Happened With The Athletes?
On May 24, 2026, on the penultimate day of the 29th National Senior Athletics Federation Competition at Birsa Munda Stadium in Ranchi, Madhya Pradesh’s Dev Kumar Meena and Kuldeep Kumar engaged in the kind of pole vault duel that Indian athletics rarely gets to witness.
The previous national record in men’s pole vault was 5.41m, set by Kuldeep Kumar in Bhubaneswar earlier in May 2026.
Then, in Ranchi, as reported by ANI, “Madhya Pradesh’s talented athletes Dev Kumar Meena and Kuldeep Kumar raised the bar to 5.45 metres to set a national record in the men’s pole vault on the penultimate day of the 29th National Senior Athletics Federation Competition here in Ranchi.”
Dev Meena, going first, cleared his jump at 5.42m, breaking the national record of 5.41m set just last month by his own training partner, Kuldeep Kumar. However, Kuldeep gave it back as good when mere minutes later he cleared with 5.45m, taking back the record holder position.
Dev, not to sit back, matched the same height, officially making them both joint national record holders.
Dev secured a gold medal on a countback, though, with Kuldeep claiming the silver.
Both cleared the Commonwealth Games 2026 qualification mark of 5.25m, meaning they have earned their place in the Indian team for the Games to be held in Glasgow
While the competition itself was exhilarating with this back and forth, it was a video that depicted what happened afterwards that had everyone enraged.
In a video posted online, the two winning athletes are shown manually loading their sporting equipment, five-meter-long fibreglass poles, on a cramped e-rickshaw post the event.
Both Dev Meena & Kuldeep Kumar broke the National Record in the Pole Vault at the Nationals earlier.
And after creating history, the champions had to carry their poles like this in a rickshaw♂️
Our pole vaulters deserve much better facilities!
pic.twitter.com/LBGK41YE9N https://t.co/fdpBbgwWjk— The Khel India (@TheKhelIndia) May 25, 2026
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Reports indicated that the athletes had to arrange the e-rickshaw themselves and personally convince the driver to take the oversized equipment. Pole vault poles are typically around 16 to 17.5 feet in length, roughly five metres, made of fibreglass, and cost close to ₹2 lakh per pole.
No dedicated transport had been arranged for the athletes or their equipment by the Athletics Federation of India, which organised the competition.
The Federation Cup is, as Olympics.com noted, “the lone selection trial for the Commonwealth Games 2026.”
In other words, the AFI chose this event to decide who represents India internationally, and then left the qualifiers to figure out the e-rickshaw situation themselves.
The video went viral instantly and had a lot of people raging over the continued mistreatment of Indian players.
The X/Twitter page @TheKhelIndia sharing the video wrote, “Both Dev Meena & Kuldeep Kumar broke the National Record in the Pole Vault at the Nationals earlier. And after creating history, the champions had to carry their poles like this in a rickshaw. Our pole vaulters deserve much better facilities!”
This is also not the first time these two players have been mistreated by authorities. The incident happened in January this year, while Dev Kumar Meena, Kuldeep Kumar and their coach Ghanshyam were returning from the All India Inter-University Championships in Mangaluru back to Bhopal.
During the journey, they were deboarded at the Panvel station in Mumbai by a Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE).
In a video shared by sports platform NNIS, the two athletes questioned the Indian Railways official and the harassment they had experienced, even while being international-level competitors.
At the Panvel station, the TTE objected to their pole vault poles, branding them “oversized” and ordering the athletes to disembark. The TTE had first asked that they leave their equipment behind, only allowing them entry with the pipes after the athletes pleaded for a long time and payment of a fine.
Coach Ghanshyam, speaking with PTI Bhasha, said, “We were returning from Mangaluru and had to take a train from Panvel to Bhopal. I went out to have some food while some of the players were sitting near the poles outside the station when the ticket collector asked them to remove the equipment.”
He added, “I went and explained that these were pole vault poles, showed him our participation proof and medals, but he said the equipment should have been sent in the luggage compartment.”
Coach Ghanshyam also explained the reason why these poles cannot be stored in the luggage van, saying, “The poles are made of fiberglass and are extremely expensive — one pole costs nearly ₹2 lakh. With the way luggage is handled, there is a real danger of them breaking. We had six or seven poles with us… There is also the risk of theft, so we have to keep checking on them. We even showed the ticket collector that the poles were not causing any problem to anyone, but he insisted that we either pay ₹8,000 or leave the poles at the station.”
He further revealed, “I pleaded with him, asking where I would get ₹8,000 from, and even if we paid, how would the poles be transported?”
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: The Indian Express, Moneycontrol, The Economic Times
Find the blogger: @chirali_08
This post is tagged under: Athletes, indian Athletes, indian Athletes mistreated, indian sports, indian sporting authorities, dev kumar meena, kuldeep kumar, pole vaulters, indian pole vaulters Athletes, National Senior Athletics Federation Competition, dev kumar meena kuldeep kumar, dev kumar meena kuldeep kumar national record, dev kumar meena kuldeep kumar pole vaulting
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