India in Top 5 global doping offenders

India may be considered a sporting minnow but in terms of doping by its athletes, it has been ranked third behind Russia and Turkey in a World Anti-Doping Agency Report for 2013 with as many as 91 from the country testing positive for banned substances in that year.According to the 2013 Anti-Doping Rule Violations Report released by the WADA on June 15, Russia has maximum number of dope offenders with 212 testing positive while the figures for Turkey and India were 155 and 91 respectively. Of the 91 Indians, 20 were women athletes.

France came a close fourth with 90 dope cheats in the report compiled by the WADA based mainly on the information received from National Anti-Doping Organisations (NADOs). The comprehensive report, which dealt with testing of 207513 samples, covered 115 nationalities and 89 sports.If the four non-analytical Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) are taken into account, India has 95 ADRVs, fourth in the WADA list behind Russia (225), Turkey (188) and France (108). Russia had 13 non-analytical ADRVs, while the corresponding figures for Turkey and France were 33 and 18 respectively.

Non-analytical ADRVs refer to cases that do not involve detection of a prohibited substance by a WADA-accredited laboratory but instances like failure to submit to a test, possession, use or trafficking of a prohibited substance following an investigation by athletes and support personnel.In all, 1953 athletes across the globe committed anti-doping rule violations out of which 1687 were actually caught for using banned substances while 266 violated other rules (non-analytical ADRVs).

Among the NADOs, India’s National Anti-Doping Agency recorded 93 adverse analytical findings — the third highest — out of 4274 samples it tested in 2013 but three were exonerated later by anti-doping disciplinary and appeal panels, leaving 90 cases of Anti-Doping Rule Violations.The NADOs of Russia and Turkey reported ADRVs of 184 and 144 out of 14582 and 1527 samples they respectively tested.

The WADA said that the Report was the most comprehensive statistics offered till date. “WADA is pleased to provide the most comprehensive set of doping statistics to-date,” WADA Director General David Howman said.“The sanctions were handed out to athletes and support personnel from 115 countries in 89 sports following tests performed in 2013 and other non-analytical investigations that were concluded that same year,” he added.WADA President Sir Craig Reedie said doping remains the biggest threat to integrity of sport.

“With close to 2,000 sanctions in one year and almost every sport represented, it’s evident that doping still represents a huge threat to modern-day sport. Protecting clean athletes and upholding the integrity of sport remains WADA’s number one priority. In the light of the Report’s findings, WADA and its partners around the world must continue to deter current athletes from doping; and, crucially, educate future generations from ever considering doping as an option,” he added.

This is the first time that WADA has been able to pull together such a comprehensive report on ADRVs and this was made possible by unprecedented collaboration with World Anti-Doping Code signatories, notably NADOs.