Sacked coaches say Chanu clean, Pratima had a drink too many

While Sandhu, the chief national coach, clears Chanu of wrongdoing and hints at sabotage, foreign expert coach Taranenko says Pratima tested positive for alcohol consumption while training in Belarus and indicates her personal coach Ramesh Malhotra may be an accessory to her doping. The reports are with The Indian Express.

Both coaches, incidentally, are responsible for both lifters — and both have had their contracts with the Sports Ministry terminated. The entire issue is now being investigated by the KP Singh Deo Committee.

Sandhu’s report, to the Teams Wing of the Sports Authority of India, fails to answer how traces of banned diuretics were found in Chanu’s urine samples after the competition. It merely says that Chanu, having kept her body weight in check all through her training period in Minsk and after reaching Athens, didn’t need to take diuretics to reduce her body weight.

He also wonders why she had to resort to to it because ‘‘her performance at Minsk has been encouraging.’’

‘‘It is difficult to believe Chanu would have intentionally consumed this medicine… knowing fully well the consequences of the drug abuse, it is hard to believe Chanu would have consumed the medicine’’, Sandhu’s report says.

It implies one of two things: that Chanu doped herself between the random test and her competition or, as the lifter herself alleged, was the victim of sabotage.

Chanu had alleged, after the news broke, that someone had mixed something in a drink before the comeptition. She was sharing the room with fellow Indian lifters at Athens.

Pratima, on the other hand, had blamed her fall on Taranenko and Karnam Malleswari. She said she went to Belarus against her wishes and there she was administered close to 25-30 injections.

Taranenko’s report, to India’s deputy chef de mission at Athens Harish Sharma, said it could be a case of misguidance by Pratima’s personal coach Ramesh Malhotra.

‘‘I mentioned that Malhotra told me at the camp in Bangalore May, 2004, that Testosterone Propianate is washed out from body within seven days. This gives doubt that Pratima may have taken advice from Malhotra as there were clear 9/10 days in (between) dope test done at Delhi and dope test to be done at Athens.’’

Taranenko — currently at the NIS, Patiala — also mentions another incident that took place at Minsk. During a warm-up session, Pratima’s mouth ‘‘was not smelling normal’’. When asked, she told the coaches that she had taken ayuvedic medicines.

‘‘The test report was shocking as her blood contained 1.07 per cent alcohol content, which is very high concentration’’, Taranenko’s report says. ‘‘It is no good for lifter to take alcohol during training as it can cause serious injury and trauma.’’

In conclusion, he says: ‘‘It is very serious that Pratima had high concentration of alcohol in blood at Minsk and now tested positive at Athens for Testosterone. I have every reason that Pratima may have taken advice of Mr Malhotra…’’

It’s a statement Taranenko repeated to Singh Deo at the Olympic Village when the news of the positive tests first broke.

Pratima, when contacted today, denied the alcohol-related allegation, saying it was not possible for any lifter to consume alcohol.

She stuck to her allegations against her coaches and said that Taranenko was now trying to blame her in a bid to come out clean in the entire episode.

She said that she’d been getting threatening calls asking her not to pursue her case with the Union Sports Ministry and remain silent.