Drug cheats heap shame on the country in an year of disgrace

Undated (UNI) If there was an year Indian weightlifting could drop veil to hide itself from posterity, 2006 could well qualify for that after drug cheats heaped shame on the country, inviting their second ban in recent past.

In fact, weightlifting has become the dirtiest sport pursued by the country and the dope menace has tainted the laurels it brought in the international competitions.

Bodari Prameelavalli, Sailaja Pujari, Edwin Raju and Tejinder Singh were tested positive for banned stanozole -- the first two in a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) random test conducted in Patiala ahead of the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in March and the last two in doping test during the Games.

This occurred within seven months of coming out of a one-year suspension period imposed after three women lifters had returned positive during the Athens Olympic Games in 2004.

As per the Indian Weightlifting Federation rules, which incidentally, were enforced after the Athens doping fiasco, Edwin and Tejinder were slapped life bans while Prameelavalli and Pujari were let off with lighter punishments -- two-year ban each -- as they tested positive before the Games.

The drug offenders not only jeopardised their individual careers but also made fellow lifters pay the price for no fault of theirs as the world governing body handed India a one-year ban and they were denied participation in the Doha Asian Games.

Of course, there was a way out but the Indian Federation did not pay the 50,000 dollar fine, for that could have lifted the ban, which would now remain in force till March next year.

For the last four years, it has been a fascinating tale of dope shame by a few cheats dampening the glory brought by their untainted compatriots in international multi-disciplinary competitions.

A rich haul of medals in Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002 was overshadowed by shameful flunking of dope test by lifters Krishnan Madasamy and Satheesha Rai who were stripped of their Gold medals.

Pratima Kumari (64 kg) and Sanamacha Chanu (53 kg) were the culprits in Athens Olympics in 2004. Earlier in that year, S Sunaina had tested positive for nandrolone in Kazakhstan and she was stripped of the two bronze medals she won in 53kg category, besides being slapped a two-year ban.

Three dope flunks in a year meant Indian lifters were banned by International Weightlifting Federation for a year. They came out of it in August 2005 only to be slapped another one-year ban this year after the Melbourne Games, where they did reasonably well.

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