Sport - Athletics

Banned javelin thrower competes in N. Rly. meet

NEW DELHI: Javelin thrower Gajender Singh, one of the athletes suspended following a doping violation in the National Games in Guwahati in February last year, has participated in the Northern Railway athletics championship.

Gajender finished second with a throw of 64.08 in the meet held at Ambala from October 22 to 24.

He had been banned till July 13, 2009, for his Guwahati violation for the use of stimulant mephentermine.

“We were not aware of his suspension; no one had told us,” said the Secretary of the Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB), Rakesh Yadav, on Monday.

“We have now been told by the AFI (Athletics Federation of India) that he had been suspended. We have conveyed this information to the concerned departments,” he added.

Gajender, who has a personal best of 76.93m, competed under the Uttar Pradesh banner in the Guwahati Games, where he and Kerala’s Jasmin Joseph were the two athletes among the nine sportspersons who tested positive. All were subsequently disqualified and suspended.

Interestingly, Gajender had also participated in the inter-Railway championship at Bhubaneswar in October last year, according to Railway sources.

Last year, Jasmin and Bharatha Reddy of Andhra, while serving suspensions, had competed in the all-India inter-University championships at Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu.

The AFI had suspended the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) for three months last February and set up an enquiry committee to go into the issue of suspended athletes being allowed to take part in meets conducted by an affiliated unit apart from the AIU’s reluctance to take any action against the sanctioned university athletes. Nothing has been heard of the suspension or follow-up action since then.

Gajender and Jasmin were included in the list of suspended athletes by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in October last year.

The IAAF had sought an explanation from the AFI when it came to know that banned athletes were allowed to compete in the inter-University meet.

Athletes who compete in official meets while being under suspension for doping offences could face further sanctions as per IAAF anti-doping rules.

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