Finally it is official. Twenty days after the Commonwealth Games got over, Satheesha Rai has been stripped of his medals after the Games Federation confirmed that double gold medallist weightlifter had tested positive for strychnine — a prohibited stimulant.Rai, who participated in the 77kg category, happens to be the second Indian lifter after Krishnan Madaswamy to test positive at the Games. But what makes Rai’s case peculiar is the delay on the part of the Games Federation in making the announcement. In fact, sources said that Rai would have escaped the guillotine but for the Indian media reports, which the British media picked and splashed subsequently. With Rai’s two gold and a bronze medals having been taken away India have been overtaken by Canada, who now take the third spot in the medals tally. There is also a conspiracy theory that is being floated around and according to that it was the Canadian authorities that went against Rai.Rai, who now faces a six-month ban, is ruled out of the Busan Asian Games. In any case, the Weightlifting Federation of India (WFI) has kept him out of the preparatory camp pending a decision.There was another fallout from these two episodes. Yesterday, a World Anti Dope Agency (WADA) official swooped down on the the National Institute of Sports (NIS) at Patiala to collect samples of four weightlifters — Kunjarani Devi, Sanamacha Chanu, Pratima Kumari and Thandava Muthu — who won medals at the Games and are now preparing for the Asian Games.The WADA representative came to campus discreetly and approached the players for urine samples. The other medal winners at the Games Neelam Laxmi and P Shalaja, who were not at the camp but were on the list, will also be tested at Bangalore in the coming days.
