Athletes threaten to spill beans

Some believe tomorrow’s hearing could be their last hope to escape a two-year ban from all competition for using performance-enhancing drugs at the National Games. Udaya Lakshmi is accompanied by her younger sister and husband, Bhaskar, a former Andhra Pradesh footballer. The younger Kavita Pandya has come with her lawyer father in tow. Both are clinging to their last hope that the Anti-Doping Commission’s ‘medical probe’ might just give them a clean chit.

They spent the entire day meeting officials and even a doctor on the AAFI premises to find out if the provisional suspension could be squashed. The odds may be against them, though, as the IOA and AAFI are under increasing pressure to crack down on doping and cannot now afford to repeat their past laxity towards offenders.

Lakshmi’s trump card may be the threat of dishing out dirt on dope. Over lunch at the SAI canteen, the Andhra hurdler told this reporter, matter of fact: ‘‘Let’s wait for tomorrow. If they save me, good. Otherwise, I will disclose everything about the doping programme going on at the NIS camps and what officials, doctors and coaches are doing.’’

Lakshmi, who’s competed for more than a decade now, has less to lose from a ban than Pandya. Her father spoke in the same vein about the NIS campus but added he would speak up after the final ruling.

Both athletes are trying to beat the pressure in their own way. Udaya Lakshmi plans to visit Agra the day after her hearing to ‘‘show the Taj Mahal to my younger sister’’. Pandya may join the rest of her family on a trip to Vrindavan.