Strict anti-doping measures in Jr Fed Cup meet

Chennai, Jun 7 (UNI) Anti-doping measures would be strictly enforced by doctors from Sports Authority of India (SAI) at the sixth Federation Cup junior athletic championships to be held here at the Nehru stadium from June 15 to 17.

Athletes from about thirty states, including international stars would be vying for honours and fighting for a place in the Indian squad for the 12th Asian Junior Athletic meet in China, Tamil Nadu Athletic Association President W I Davaram told newspersons today.

He said while random tests would be made on all the athletes vying for honours in the meet, the winners would be subjected to doping tests strictly.

"Even if they try to evade it on pretext that they have to catch a train, they would not be allowed to get away,'' Mr Davaram , who headed a committee to investigate the doping charges against discus thrower Neelam J Singh, said.

He said the top internationals in fray include Karnataka's Poovamma who has the best timing of 55.43 S in 400 m and has participated in the World Youth championships, Tintu Luka, the 400 m runner from P T Usha's academy, Jhumma Khatoon of West Bengal -800 m who had also represented India at world youth meet, A Jessy of Tamil Nadu who competed in the world youth games, another 400 m runner V B Bineesh-Kerala and Ramzan Khan-Rajasthan- 400 m semi finalist.

He said the field would include 45 athletes in the ongoing camp in Banglore and added Tamil Nadu would be fielding the largest contingent.

''The performance of the athletes was expected to be good with the synthetic track at the Nehru stadium being the ''fastest'' available in the country, he said.

Mr Dawaram said Taml Nadu was expected to play host to more national level meets with two more synthetic tracks coming up.

''The track in Madurai was to be inaugurated last year. But the heavy monsoon rains delayed it. The track in Coimbatore would be completed in three months time'', he announced.

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