Whodunit: How clean lifters turn dirty abroad

How can a lifter, who is cleared before the Games, be tested positive? Who is responsible for this shameful happening: the authorities, the coaches or the athlete himself? When The Indian Express confronted the Weightlifting Federation of India (WFI) ad-hoc committee members Balbir Singh Bhatia and RR Singh, who rushed from Haryana after the first case broke out, with these questions, they merely said, “We’ll wait for Madasamy and Rai to explain their positions. Besides, we have to wait for the report from the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) before taking any action.” While the IWF and the Sports Ministry may be still waiting and watching, the automatic punishment from the international body for the offence would mean a six-month suspension and a fine of $1,200.

Both Bhatia and Singh, however, admit that something more needs to be done to check doping. ‘‘We had taken all possible steps to prevent such a shame being committed by our lifters. In fact, during their camp at Bangalore each one of them was asked to sign a written undertaking even before they were cleared by the ministry. We had duly sent letters to the sports boards warning them of the visit of an anti-dope team visiting from WADA (World Anti-Dope Agency) besides and our own agency (SAI).’’

But the question now is what punishment would be meted out to the lifters? Sports Minister Uma Bharti’s reaction hardly revealed anything today after her arrival from the Manchester Games. Rather, she said,

‘‘I think there is some politics involved. Anyway, I have to wait for the report.’’ What she forgot is that after the Kunjarani episode last year, the Sports Minister had said that she stood for punitive action — from athlete, to coaches to SAI and federation officials. ‘‘It is doping) worse than match-fixing. We’ll not spare any one found indulging in drug abuse,’’ she had said. Sports medicine specialists and director of SAI’s Dope Laboratory, Dr PSM Chandran defends the checking method at home. ‘‘There is no way you can point fingers at our testing. Our team is competent and we have all the necessary equipment,’’ said Chandran.