At least 10 track and field athletes, mostly relay runners, are yet to undergo dope tests, though the Indian team for next month’s Asian Championships in China leaves in three days’ time, according to sources.
This may lead to a situation where India sends athletes to the championships whose dope status is not known as it is unlikely to get the results of the tests conducted on them before their May 30 departure.
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has selected 20 athletes for the June 3-7 Asian Athletics Championships in Wuhan and they will name the relay runners (men’s and women’s 4x100m and 4x400) after trials at NIS Patiala and Bangalore on Wednesday.
It is learnt that the AFI has asked the NADA to take dope samples of the relay runners after the trials on Wednesday and sources said that this was being done after some athletes, including women quartermilers, went missing when a World Anti-Doping Agency dope testing team visited the SAI-lNCPE, Thiruvananthapuram early this month.
Significantly, the trials of the women’s 4x400m relay, which was earlier scheduled to be held in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday, has been shifted to NIS Patiala. The quartermilers camping at SAI-lNCPE, Thiruvananthapuram will now have trials at NIS Patiala where they will also give dope samples to a NADA team.
“It is not a secret that at least seven quartermilers went missing when a WADA team came calling at Thiruvananthapuram. Somebody tipped them off and they left the center the day prior to the WADA team arrived. I feel that the top brass of the AFI knew the seriousness of the situation and they have shifted the trial to Patiala from Thiruvananthapuram so that they undergo dope tests there,” an athletics coach said on anonymity.
“It is not difficult to roughly know who could be selected in the relay team and taking these relay runners into account, it is clear that at least 10 athletes in the Asian Championships team are yet to undergo dope tests,” he added.
Asked why some of the athletes have not been tested yet, chief coach Bahadur Singh did not have a clear answer, saying that he can guarantee that those at the NIS Patiala have done so.
SAI to oversee para athletes
With the PCI suspended, the Sports Ministry has decided that all matters relating to para-athletes, including selection of athletes for various events, will be taken care of by the Sports Authority of India (SAI).
The Ministry had suspended the Paralympic Committee of India following mismanagement at the National Paralympic Games in Ghaziabad.
Apart from the selection matters, SAI will also take care of coaching camps and submission of entries of para-athletes in international tournaments.
Two more NSF’s seek ioa change
The move to oust IOA president N Ramachandran on Tuesday got support from two more National Sports Federations, taking the total number of NSFs demanding a No Confidence Motion against him to 16.
The Wushu Association of India and the Snooker and Billiards Association have become the latest to join the chorus.