ATHLETES who dashed the medal hopes of Zane Duquemin in yesterday’s discus event at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune are under investigation by an independent referee.

A number of throwers who claim to be under 19 are being made to surrender their passports to prove that they are eligible to take part in the competition.

Earlier Jersey’s general team manager Paul Huddlestone said some teams were concerned that host nation India, who is currently way ahead in the medals table with 17 gold, ten silver and eight bronze, may be one country who is not playing by the rules. He said: ‘You should see the size of some of the guys here. There’s been a query in a number of the sports and some of the other countries have asked for verification that some of the athletes are under 19.

‘No one has accused any particular country so far but you can read between the lines. India is top of the medals table and some of their athletes look a lot older than 18, particularly in the throwing and weightlifting.
‘In Zane’s event yesterday he was beaten by two Australians, two Indians and an Englishman. Zane trains with the English guy when he is in the UK, Curtis Griffith Parker, and they know each other very well so there are no questions about him.

‘The Australian guys are big, but they do not look old in the face. Yesterday they brought an independent referee in to review everybody’s passports, but so far only the Australians have surrendered theirs, so we’ll wait and see what happens.’

• Picture: Zane Duquemin