Sport - Sports : General

Doping no issue at all: Bhanot

KOCHI: A bunch of syringes and needles were picked up from the toilets at the Maharaja’s Stadium, the venue of the 48th National Open athletics championship here, over the last few days.

“We clean the toilets almost every half hour, we’ve collected a bag of syringes,” said P.R. Purushothaman, the Administrator of the Maharaja’s Stadium administrative committee and the coach who helped K.M. Beenamol and her brother K.M. Binu to fame and fortune, here on Wednesday evening.

Recently, many of our athletes suffered a shocking slump in their form at the Beijing Olympics. But Lalit Bhanot, the Athletics Federation of India Secretary, says doping is not an issue at all in Indian athletics.

“Our athletes have been tested so many times by WADA (the World Anti Doping Agency), and almost all our records have come in international meets, so doping is not an issue at all,” said Mr Bhanot here this evening.

“If they don’t train for eleven and half months every year, there will be no consistency.”

That’s also the reason for the very poor performance of many of our stars at the National Open here, he said. Some of the country’s leading women’s discus throwers who are being touted as medal hopes in international meets were nearly 10m below their best in Kochi. — Principal Correspondent

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