An athlete representing Tamil Nadu was forced to run the 400m hurdles solo on Saturday morning after officials made a blunder during her heat.
Harshitha clocked an impressive personal best of 1:01:03, coming third in her heat, and her qualification to the final was initially confirmed.
However, officials later disqualified her, citing that she had crossed over to clear a missing hurdle in Lane 7, and was placed in Lane 8.
After a verbal protest, the Athletics Federation of India allowed her to run another race on Saturday morning, provided she ran under 1:02:00 to qualify for the final.
Despite the challenging conditions, including high temperatures and humidity, Harshitha fell short of qualifying, clocking 1:02:54.
She expressed her disappointment, stating that it's not fair that she had to run three races, while everyone else only had to run two.
