Sunita: Doped or duped?

Before leaving for Busan, the ritualistic ‘strict’ dope check did take place this time too. Every athlete was made to undergo a dope test at SAI lab before he or she was issued the ticket to Busan. In fact, the tennis squad — sans Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi — was held back for a day until it was given the go ahead after the test.

Despite such measures, Sunita tested positive. Since the dope-testing equipment is freshly imported for the Afro-Asian Games, there can’t be much wrong with it. It only points to two possibilities. Either the testing methods are not right or those operating these machines are not qualified. The accredited laboratories all over the world have a qualified staff. But since the one in the country is not, these regulations are not followed.

As we have seen in the past there are chances that athletes are ignorant about the banned substances. Take Kunjarani’s case for example. After she was banned for taking a stimulant, the lifter had confessed to taking some herbal food substance without knowing about its ingredients. In fact, the food substance contained certain banned drugs and SAI medical center came to know about it only after getting those Sankritised names translated into English!

All this could have been avoided if only SAI had an accredited laboratory with proper set of qualified officials. Perhaps, this is what had prompted the Asian Body Building Association to tell all its affiliates to get the bodybuilders’ dope samples tested at a Bangkok laboratory before coming to Busan. Such is the credibility of India’s dope laboratories.

Sunita’s past record shows that the competence of the medical experts can also be questioned. The middle-distance runner was part of the Sydney Olympic squad but could not undertake the trip after a fractured right femur. At that time it was reported that while training in Ukraine she had complained of pain in the hip region. A Ukranian doctor, Yuri Boyoki, and Dr Ashok Ahuja at Patiala had diagnoised it as iliopsoas tendinitis. But the Patiala Medical College experts found the diagnosis wrong and a second opinion sought from Apollo and Ganga Ram Hospitals confirmed the fact. With such a support system like this one thing is for sure, we haven’t heard the last of such episodes.