Regardless of massive names like discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur and javelin thrower Shivpal Singh — each Tokyo Olympians — failing dope checks just lately, the Athletics Federation of India just isn’t engaged on any new steps to curb the menace.
“What extra can we do? They’ve been educated, they’re effectively knowledgeable on what they will and can’t take and they aren’t new athletes,” AFI president Adille Sumariwalla instructed The Hindu.
“If an athlete needs to ‘commit suicide’, I can not cease anyone. All people is conscious. I’ve stated in each discuss of mine, on the Nationals, keep away from dope. All of the testing that we now have to do, we’re doing. I’ve pushed for the invoice on doping, now the invoice is coming. What extra can I do?” Sumariwalla asks.
Doping is a giant enterprise the world over and new medication pop up yearly. However the flavour in India seems to be totally different.
“Each time the brand new (WADA) checklist comes, nationwide camp attendees are up to date, however none of them are hooked on new medication, they’re caught on Eighties medication,” stated Sumariwalla. “Which suggests they’re all picked up from the native market someplace. They don’t seem to be some fancy artificial medication.”
By the way, Kamalpreet, who was sixth on the Olympics, examined optimistic for stanozolol, the steroid which compelled Canadian Ben Johnson to go away the 1988 Seoul Olympics in shame.
The AFI’s alternative of nations — like Turkey, the Czech Republic and Poland — for abroad camps forward of main video games have additionally raised eyebrows in lots of quarters.
However Sumariwalla discovered that unusual and defined the benefits of Antalya, the place many Indians are at the moment coaching. “The variety of doping circumstances in India are greater than in Turkey. So they need to be telling us, you don’t come right here, you’ll dope our athletes,” stated Sumariwalla.
“The Turkey website is the one one on the planet which has a hill, sand and observe… all of the three amenities. And the climate is nice,” he added.