The drugnet

A little-known,modestly-talented junior athlete from Mumbai who had one firm eye on Class 12 results and an engineering seat even as she made the best of her ability to win the state level sprints,had once offered a drivel of an alibi to refuse a national camp-call to Patiala. “Northern winters are very cold and I don’t like paneer (cottage cheese) everyday,” she’d lied,before hastily mumbling,“I don’t want to get trapped in that system or listen to those coaches.” With no illusions about her average capability,she comfortably settled for the obscurity of a former promising junior athlete. Camp-tales from the palace training facility weren’t the most encouraging,for she thought she’d seen the worst when at a national junior meet,she’d spotted more than one brazen syringe lying around.

fishy goings-on

India’s most recent doping-scandal,where six athletes,including three top-rung quarter-milers Mandeep Kaur,Jauna Murmu and Sini Jose,fell into the dope net of international testing officials on Indian soil,brings into sharp focus the fishy goings-on at pre-season national camps and the Bangalore meet where bulk of the half-dozen tested positive. Affixing blame might happen eventually — or never — as athletes tearfully plead innocence,coaches seal their lips and officials offer an apology for explanations like a mass contamination of supplements consumed by the accused. You could bet a million that the prima facie vitamins — tagged to the guilt — weren’t scanned immediately,offering much scope for tampering later.

With a positive test,the athletes are perceived to be guilty unless proven innocent. A huge embarrassment it may be — when a clutch of tests taint gold medals — but journalists over the years have noted that secrecy is a part of the regime at Patiala. It’s no mere hearsay that athletes have bolted from the camp at a whiff of sample-collectors approaching,and a three-day reprieve from WADA’s whereabouts clause sees this tiny window exploited. Sports camps across the world — be it football or cricket — are thrown open to the media,but Patiala turns into a guarded fortress.

Wrong prescriptions

In 2004,a doping chart was in circulation at the National Athletics camp at the SAI centre in Bangalore,while Nuvir,a testosterone steroid,was prescribed in the Jan list,which also included Neurobol capsules. A year earlier,a similar chart was doing the rounds and it included prescriptions of Winstrol,Menabol,Neurobol and Riboxini injection (Ukraine origin). The first three banned steroids amount to Stanozolol — which despite its out-datedness is still as popular.

Soma Biswas,former Asiad heptathlete,gives Mandeep the benefit of doubt citing instances of companies which secretly use banned substances in their products to make them instant hits. “During every camp,athletes get a list of banned substances,but in India,athletes are allowed to buy their own nutritional supplements. On the face of it,there shouldn’t be a problem if someone buys a product approved by the athletics federation. But sometimes athletes cross the line and buy products not on the list,” she explains.

The 4x400m — owing to India’s traditional dominance in Asia since 1986 — has always been an aspirational event for one-lappers,ambition and desperation piggy-backing the baton-exchange. Biswas hints at near-paranoia at the camp. “Personal rivalry can lead to personal acrimony and athletes,especially the youngsters,have to be very careful while attending a camp. During my career I didn’t even share water with my colleagues,” she says.

Former sprinter Pinki Pramanik cuts to the chase in Olympics’ qualification year,when saying,“Olympics is the Holy Grail for every athlete. So it’s not surprising that they go the extra mile to make the grade. One can try meeting those great standards by hard work,but some are not so confident in their own abilities. They feel they need something extra to achieve the required standard.” Going by that logic,the CWG and Asiad were bound to see many go for broke,fully aware that Chief Ministers would fall over each other to announce insta-incentives immediately after. Success,though,also put these now-recognisable faces on the WADA radar.

The symbiotic relationship between an athlete and coach (coaches get their fair share of limelight and monies at felicitation,and why not?) too can often turn parasitical. Anything from gentle coaxing to outright ordering can put the athlete on the questionable road to success. Biswas says: “There are some personal trainers who insist and indulge their wards to take the wrong route. But the monitoring authorities are very vigilant these days and often do surprise tests.”

Of more scandalous proportions is India’s decision to rely on erstwhile iron-curtain countries like Ukraine for their coaching expertise — and in turn the coach’s bewitching offers to train them at home in Ukraine. A pleasant climate and top-class facilities are cited as reasons — and it’s not as laughable as it sounds. However,Ukraine’s stature is sullied ironically owing to Indian athletes’ staggering improvements in performances (see box) right after their return. The alleged hotbed for doping is Yalta,and the main accused is Yuri Ogorodnik — the man who was feted for shepherding India’s golden girls to their 4×400 double last year.

“In Yalta,athletes get the perfect environment to train,the best diet and can fully focus,” Ogorodnik said earlier,simply adding,“The improved results at Commonwealth Games and Olympics,has shown that it is beneficial.” Pramanik attempts to defend the Ukrainian sojourn: “Rest assured Ukraine’s not a doping hub. Yes,their nutritional supplements,especially the multivitamins,are very popular among athletes. But that’s because their products are comparatively cheaper. Also,they offer fantastic practice facilities. In any case,if you want to resort to malpractice then your living room is the safest place to do that.” The recent dope-cheatings prove it could be both Ukraine and the drawing-room.

The ukraine connection

While current relay runner Ashwini Akkunji believes it’d be great to have a facility comparable to Yalta in India,she seconds Pramanik in defending Ukraine,though having often said forlornly that there was nothing else much to do in Yalta. Not even English movies to watch. Injeti Srinivas,joint secretary,ministry for sports and youth affairs,says that the system,a good one at that,forces these athletes to follow their coaches to eastern Europe.

“Our elite athletes have been to Yalta because our coaches,Yuri (400 women,4×400 women) and Dmitry Vinaygan (100 metres men,4×100 metres men),are from there and they are comfortable training in an environment and a system they know well. Our athletes have shown improvement after those stints. Coaches follow systems that made Russia a powerhouse in athletics and training methods are up there with the best,” explains Srinivas.

Srinivas is lenient in his assessment,saying,“We’ve had no reason to suspect anything untoward happening in Ukraine. We have no evidence of any systematic doping programme in place in Ukraine. Moreover,it is not that our athletes only travel to Ukraine,but they have been to South Africa,Malaysia and the Gulf for training stints.”

But some do call a spade a spade. “It’s like blaming someone else for your problems,” says an international sports commentator from IAAF,adding,“Everyone is aware of the dangers of being caught and its repurcussions so blaming coaches from eastern Europe is not fair. Yes,the eastern Europeans have a dodgy history,but they are competing at IAAF meetings and Olympics and you can’t paint a sweeping brush.”

It is an unspoken axiom that Yalta or any other venue in Ukraine,is a safe haven of sorts,as it is not easy for testers to get visas for the country,compared to say England. When 10 women 400m runners,male sprinters,discus throwers Krishna Poonia and Harwant Kaur had a stint in Ukraine ahead of the Commonwealth Games,special permission was granted to these elite athletes. When mid-distance runner Sunita Rani,faced doping charges following the Busan Asian Games,she is said to have told a top IOA official that she was given an injection hours before her race in Busan by a Russian doctor. The Russian doctor,was widely believed to be Volodymyr Potrebenko. From Ukraine.

Realistic expectations

Solutions suggested have included completely refraining from seeking expertise from Ukraine and Belarus,while it would take the government a fraction of the funds spent on sending officials abroad to instead employ independent sleuths to travel with the team to eastern European stints. Or even for these sleuths to go check on every small meet — from sub-junior to inter-police and inter-railways — and find evidence,which not many take the effort to mask.

This however,many believe,requires the federation and India’s Olympic bosses to first set realistic expectations from their athletes,and then go about restoring order in their messy house. The commentator puts things in perspective. “We’ve lived with the fact that we’re a billion with just one individual gold medal for all these years. It’s fine to dream of being a sporting super-power,but not at the cost of getting our reputation shredded every now and then because of dope-tainted medallists. Or risking health of several women by pumping them with testosterone! We d rather have an Anju Bobby George finish sixth at Olympics,than gold medallists turn in drug positives and embarass us.”

Tracking yalta