‘Medals not yet stripped’

Even as he admitted that they may only be delaying the inevitable, Sports Minister Vikram Verma indicated that any action against middle and...

Even as he admitted that they may only be delaying the inevitable, Sports Minister Vikram Verma indicated that any action against middle and long-distance runner Sunita Rani will be possible only after the result of the ‘B’ sample test, expected on October 25, is received.

‘‘How many times are we to discuss this? So far as we know, and the IOA chief, too, said this yesterday, she has not yet been stripped of her medals,’’ said the minister.

Sunita’s loss, Madhuri’s gain

Sunita Rani’s loss may prove to be Madhuri Singh’s gain, though in a limited way. If Sunita is indicted by OCA, she will lose both her gold and bronze medals. But this will mean bronze for another Indian athlete Madhuri , who finished 4th in the 1,500m with a time of 4:14.78, will move a place up. Incidentally the official site of Busan Games has already credited the bronze to her.
Madhuri had also won a silver medal in the 800m behind Beenamol.

‘‘I have asked the Sports Authority of India (SAI) to put together a final report with inputs from coaches, managers and federation chiefs. We want to know what happened in Busan. She was tested twice here and the testes were negative. For this Games tickets were handed out to Indian participants only after getting negative drug test reports,’’ he said.

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However, the minister was unwilling to accept that the testing procedures in India may be flawed.

‘‘I have read all the media reports on this matter. There is nothing wrong with our lab, only international certification is yet to be obtained. But that has already been cleared and we are just waiting for the official notification. This time, for the testing, we even obtained containers from abroad.’’

Denying that officials and coaches may be helping athletes evade procedures, he said they were as stringent here as anywhere in the world.

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