Several athletes from all around the world were forced to miss Oregon 2022, being held in Eugene from July 15 to 24, after being refused visas to the U.S. or due to late issuance. However, Dhanalakshmi's case is slightly different.
When the U.S. Embassy opened a special window for the world championships-bound Indian athletes in late June, Dhanalakshmi missed the appointment since she was competing at the Qosanov Memorial meet in Kazakhstan at that time.
The Tamil Nadu runner recorded a personal best time of 22.89 seconds to win gold at the Kazakhstan meet. However, since Dhanalakshmi missed the U.S. visa appointment, it complicated things as she also had to apply for her visa to the U.K. for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, beginning on July 28 in Birmingham, an olympics.com report said.
"Since I had gone to Kazakhstan, my U.S. visa appointment got cancelled. And for the Commonwealth Games, they had put my U.K. visa appointment for July 1. I had to attend that, and my passport got held up there," Dhanalakshmi told an English daily.
(IANS)