Bahrain’s Ruth Jebet (right) wears a dejected look as she walks past Lalita Babar at the Incheon Asiad Main Stadium on Saturday. Source: Reuters

The tiny Bahrain contingent in the Grand Stand couldn’t get enough of Ruth Jebet. The hugged and kissed her, lifted her on their shoulders and paraded her in front of the quarter-full stadium. With the national flag draped over her, Ruth poised herself for the podium ceremony.

Less than two years ago, she had turned her back on the poverty-stricken village near Nairobi in Kenya, her country of birth, for the oil-riches of Bahrain. Ruth was among the hundreds of girls from African nations who have been competing for Gulf countries, winning medals for them in return of hefty financial benefits.

On Saturday, the 16-year-old took her first step towards achieving glory for her adopted nation by storming ahead of the field and winning the 3,000m steeplechase gold at the Incheon Main Asiad Stadium.

Little did she know that, yet again, fate would be cruel to her. Immediately after the race was over, the Indian team had lodged a complaint with the officials. They contested that Ruth had stepped out of bounds while running down the bend. The race marshals saw the video replay and found the Indian appeal legitimate.

All this while, a clueless Ruth was preparing to make her maiden appearance on the top of the podium. But minutes before that could happen, an announcement was made over the public address system that she was disqualified after she had ‘momentarily stepped out of bounds during the race’.

The teenager was disqualified for stepping inside the track on her second last lap after stumbling while well clear of the rest of the field and under no pressure.

The medal ceremony had to be pushed back to Sunday even as Ruth stood motionless in the middle of the track, and was whisked inside amidst floods of tears. Ruth comfortably crossed the line first with a Games Record timing of 9 minutes, 31.36 seconds. It is now expected that China’s Li Zhenzhu, who crossed second in 9:35.23, will be awarded the gold.

More crucially, from India’s point of view, they will finish on the second and third positions as Lalita Babbar will be awarded silver while Guangzhou Asian Games gold medallist Sudha Singh will get the bronze. The Bahraini officials have lodged an appeal with the organisers and a decision is expected on Sunday.

Been there, done that

This was the second time Ruth was stripped of gold medal in a continental competition in little more than a year. Last year, she had won the title at the Asian Championships in Pune only to be ruled by the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) that she was not eligible to run for Bahrain at that time considering that she hadn’t completed the necessary naturalisation period.

To the credit of the Indians, both Babar and Sudha ran their personal best times of 9:35.37 and 9:35.64, respectively. Lalita, who was taking part in her first steeplechase race in an international event, and Sudha appeared headed to finish behind pre-race gold medal favourite Jebet, but Zhenzhu overtook them from virtually out of nowhere on the final straight.

Lalita, who works as a ticket-collector in Mumbai’s central railway, emphatically bettered her previous best of 9:52.34 clocked at the Federation Cup in Patiala last month. Her Central Railway teammate Sudha too clocked her career-best time of 9:35.64, with her previous best being 9:45.60, coming last year.