Nov 13: The Russia-born Indian coach of the Indian gymnastics team for the Guangzhou Asian Games, who left the team and returned to India over a dress row, tonight alleged "racism" in his exclusion from the opening ceremony of the sporting event.
Asked if the behaviour against him was racist, the coach Vladimir Chertkov said "it was insult straight on my face. It was humiliation. It was discrimination. The way he was asking me (to go), I can say it was racism".
The Indian contingent in the Games was hit by a controversy with the coach of the gymnastic squad deserting the team after he was barred from taking part in the opening ceremony on Friday.
Chertkov told NDTV that managers of different teams of Indian contingent had complained about the dress given to athletes for the opening ceremony because of the "wrong" size.