Friday, May 30, 2003
Friday, May 30, 2003 |
| Sport | ||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | Sport
-
Weightlifting
By Our Sports Reporter
Besides the seven weightlifters, who were found positive at the Hyderabad National Games and subsequently stripped of their medals and placings by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), the IWF has also suspended four lifters who turned positive tests at the Lucknow National and 24 from the Junior National in Chennai. In the Junior National, 23 lifters had tested positive, but M. Kanesh of Pondicherry who did not report for the dope test despite being called, has also been suspended for two years. Those with the steroid offences in the National Games and the Senior National in March 2003 — there are six such cases — will face two-year bans from international and domestic competitions. The IWF has also imposed a monetary fine, but the amount is small compared to the penalty imposed by the international body. The steroid offenders will have to pay Rs. 5,000 compared to the $ 1,000 fine levied by the international federation. Those weightlifters whose urine samples showed positive for stimulants will be out for six months and pay a fine of Rs. 1,000 each. Concerned by the number of positives in the Junior National, the IWF has cracked down on the young lifters also. ``Basically we want to clean up the sport and such a measure was needed,'' said the IWF Secretary, Balbir Singh Bhatia on Thursday. Those juniors who tested positive for steroids will receive a two-year ban from international competition and also the National camps. The lifters, however, would be allowed to take part in domestic competitions after serving one-year bans. The stimulant offenders, as usual, get six-month bans from both international and domestic events. ``We wanted to give them some hope and still teach a lesson,'' said Mr. Bhatia about the IWF decision to allow juniors to participate at the domestic level after one year. The suspension runs from January 11, 2003, onwards. As regards the fine, junior offenders will have to pay Rs. 3,000 (steroid) and Rs. 1,000 (stimulant) respectively. The international federation rules, however, do not say anything about the kind of sanctions the Indian federation has imposed on the juniors. In fact, there is no scope for a one-year suspension for steroid offences in the international federation's rules and they clearly stipulate that even when a National body has a different rule, a minimum two-year sanction will be applied for steroid offences. This is what the international federation rules state: Rule 7.8: "If sanctions by the National Federation differ from the IWF sanctions, as outlined in this policy in section 14, the minimum accepted sanction for testing not conducted by the IWF is two years. A lesser sanction may only be imposed if it is consistent with section 14.2 (b).'' (Section 14.2 (b) deals with doping violations under stimulants etc.) 7.9: "An athlete will not be permitted to compete in international competitions if serving such a sanction.'' Nowhere have the rules stated that lifters would be eligible to compete Nationally after serving a one-year suspension for steroid offences. The main question that will arise is in case one of the steroid offenders from among the juniors were to test positive again for a steroid, will they be banned for life as required under the rules? In the case of Shailaja Pujari, a prominent lifter from Andhra, it was explained that even though she had sought details about the accredited laboratories, she had not intimated the IWF to carry out her `B' sample test at a lab abroad. Thus, she was also being suspended. Her previous doping violation, in August 2001, had not resulted in a suspension officially and this one, at the junior National, was being considered as the first offence. Apart from sanctioning the lifters, the IWF has decided to crack down on the coaches also. ``The Executive Committee of the IWF was of the unanimous view that coaches are the people who should have exercised control. We have already written to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) to give us names of the coaches,'' Mr. Bhatia said. Those coaches will not be allowed to take part in any IWF activity for two years. Meanwhile, the IWF intends to submit the list of 35 offenders and the gist of its decisions to the Director General of the SAI for taking action. Mr. Bhatia said most of the lifters were training in some SAI centre or the other. The IWF has constituted a five-member committee to suggest measures, other than those the federation has adopted, to eliminate the menace of doping. The following is the list of dope offenders who were found guilty (with State and banned substances in parenthesis): National Games 2002: Venkateshwar Rao (AP, nandrolone), Parmanand (Delhi, nandrolone), Sima Golui (Bengal, nandrolone), Anita Kumari (Jharkhand, pseudoephedrine), Tejinder Singh (Punjab, ephedrine, pseudoephedrine), Gurpreet Singh (Chandigarh, ephedrine) and Ranjit Singh (Chandigarh, mephentermine). Senior National championship: Gurpreet Singh (Chandigarh, ephedrine), Arun Bhardwaj (Delhi, mephentermine), Poirein Ganbi Chanu (UP, methandienone) and G. Munivel (Punjab, nandrolone, testosterone, methandienone, mephentermine). Junior National championship: Shubhangi Kharonde (Maharashtra, methandienone), V. Prabhu (TN, ephedrine), Devender Singh (Punjab, nandrolone, methandienone, mephentermine), K. Satish Kumar (TN, nandrolone, testosterone, mephentermine), Deepak Goutam (Delhi, nandrolone, mephentermine), N. Rajakiran Reddy (TN, nandrolone), Thoinu Devi (UP, methandienone, mephentermine), M. Rita Devi (Manipur, nandrolone), Padmini Baral (Orissa, nandrolone), Rakesh Kumar (Maharashtra, nandrolone, mephentermine), Simranjit Singh (Punjab, nandrolone, mephentermine), Jatinder (MP, nandrolone), Jagadesan (TN, nandrolone, testosterone), Laljit Singh (Punjab, mephentermine), Lad Singh (Punjab, nandrolone, testosterone, mephentermine), Gurdeep Singh (Punjab, methandienone), Rakesh Kumar (Punjab, nandrolone, mephentermine), E. Elumalai (TN, nandrolone), T. Parsana (TN, nandrolone, ephedrine), Renu Mohanty (Orissa, methandienone), Shailaja Pujari (A.P, methandienone), S. Sudhakar (Pondicherry, nandrolone), M. N. P. Birla (Manipur, nandrolone) and M. Kanesh (Pondicherry, failed to report for dope test).
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | Home |
Copyright © 2003, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
