Ashwini Akkunji and two of her teammates on the 1,600-meter relay squad that won gold at the Commonwealth and Asian games were among eight track and field athletes banned this month for out-of-competition doping violations. And a foreign coach was dismissed by India's Sports Minister amid the whiff of systematic doping.
"The relay team had been producing results and they were supposed to be clean. But now that they have tested positive, there is the possibility that they have been doping all along," said Dr. PSM Chandran, head of the Indian Federation of Sports Medicine and a former Sports Authority of India employee.
Fame and fortune, and the temptation to take shortcuts to achieve them, are more attainable than ever for athletes in the rapidly growing Indian economy.
The number of positive doping cases has risen steadily in India in the last three years. In 2009, there were 67 positives from 2,331 tests conducted by the National Anti-Doping Agency. That increased to 109 positives from 2,794 tests in 2010, and in the first six months of this year there have been 66 positives from 1,482 tests.
The Indian government is about to ramp up the frequency and thoroughness of the testing in the wake of the track and field scandal.
Akkunji's 1,600-meter relay team delivered India's first gold medal on the Commonwealth Games track in 52 years last October, an uplifting finish for organizers of an event that had been lampooned in the world's media for its poor organization and allegations of corruption.
The relay team won again the following month at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, where Akkunji also won the 400 hurdles.
Most top-level athletes in this country of almost 1.2 billion — international cricketers excluded — don't make enough money directly from their sport to live on. But top performances at the elite level can earn them a good government job and increased social status.
The 23-year-old Akkunji, from a farming family in the southern state of Karnataka, completed high school but hasn't graduated from college, the minimum education level for anything above routine clerical work in the government or major banks.
With her performances last fall, she earned cash awards of more than $200,000 from the central and state governments and her employer, Indian Railways. She was dubbed the "golden girl" and became a brand ambassador for the nationalized Corporation Bank.
Akkunji, Mandeep Kaur and Sini Jose, all members of the winning relay squad, tested positive along with three other 400-meter runners — Jauna Murmu, Tiana Mary and Priyanka Panwar — in recent out-of-competition tests. Long jumper Hari Krishnan and shot put thrower Sonia Kumari also tested positive for drugs that help build muscle.
Akkunji, Jose, Kumari, Panwar and Krishnan tested positive for methandienone, Murmu and Mary for epimethandiol, and Kaur for stanozolol.
Norris Pritam, a former athlete and veteran journalist who has reported on doping in India, thinks the increase in doping cases is because the stakes have become so high for aspiring athletes in India.
"There are cash awards and promotions in their jobs," Pritam told AP. "The problem is that incentives are being misused and that is why coaches too have been involved.
"For an undereducated athlete here, it is all about capitalizing during the peak to ensure a comfortable life."
Former national field hockey captain Viren Resquinha, now the chief operating officer of Olympic Gold Quest, the private group that funded Akkunji before she tested positive, says the system is partly to blame.
"People who advise these athletes are taking them down the wrong path," he said. "Athletes need the right education and advice.
"We need to have a doctor attached to each sport, a one-contact for approval of what athletes consume because they may not know what they are doing."
Ukrainian coach Yuri Ogorodnik was among the officials fired last week when government-backed anti-doping investigators raided sports facilities in Patiala and Bangalore.
The Punjab government raided medical outlets selling performance-enhancing substances near the National Institute of Sports in Patiala, and Sukhbir Singh Badal, the state's deputy chief minister, said criminal cases will be launched against pharmacists who sell drugs without proper prescriptions.
The government funded Sports Authority of India employs homegrown coaches and hires foreign experts recommended by national sports federations. It also runs camps for athletes including at the NIS in Patiala.
Last year, a dozen Indian athletes including wrestlers, weightlifters and swimmers tested positive for methylhexaneamine just before the Commonwealth Games and were banned.
And the Indian Weightlifting Federation has twice been banned from international competition due to an excess of doping cases.
An Egyptian weightlifting coach, Maged Salama, left India three years ago alleging widespread doping.
"You have to change the system that abets lifters to go for systematic doping to enhance performance," Salama told the Indian media.
Resquinha doesn't think India's athletics image is beyond repair.
"India's reputation can be restored," he said, "by being strict in the future."
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