WADA team takes samples of NIS atheletes

Patiala, Sep 8 (UNI) The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) officials have taken urine samples of over half a dozen athletes from the national camp here.

The WADA officials arrived at the National Institute of Sports (NIS) here on Wednesday and then travelled to other training venues of Punjab to collect the samples.

According to sources, the main target of the three-member WADA team, including two foreigners, this time may not have been the elite group, but other national level athletes as well.

''The officials did make inquiries about the top three national athletes in all the events,'' sources said.

Meanwhile, NIS executive director L Ranawat has expressed ignorance about the visit of WADA team.

''Normally they do not inform us about their visit and it's possible that they came here and collected the samples without informing anybody here,'' he told UNI.

The WADA officials have generally confined themselves to the national camp at Patiala during their previous visit.

It was for the first time that the officials travelled extensively to other training venues, including Jalandhar. The officials have been adding athletes to their earlier list which was restricted to the 42 athletes who had gone to South Africa and Qatar for the training-cum-competition stint.

Some of the elite sprinters and throwers, including Seema Antil, Harwant Kaur and Krishna Punia, are away to Ukraine for a two-month training stint. The officials' sight was now on athletes at the camp here who recently represented the country at the SAF Games, the sources said.

UNI XC PS AY KN1722