The Hindu : Sport : Indian federation looking at a long haul ahead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 28, 2006

Sport

Sport

Indian federation looking at a long haul ahead

K.P. Mohan

NEW DELHI: The Indian Weightlifting Federation has a long haul ahead. Within seven months of having returned to the international fold after a one-year suspension for three doping violations by its lifters in 2004, it finds itself facing a stiffer penalty from the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) following the positives returned by Tejinder Singh and Edwin Raju at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

The Indian federation, especially its president, H.J. Dora, who was also the chef de mission of the contingent in Melbourne, has pinned the lifters' defence on the argument that they had tested `negative' in tests done by WADA at Patiala and by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) twice before departure in tests done at the Dope Control Centre (DCC) here.

The DCC tests will be of no relevance since it is not an accredited laboratory. Even the `negative' reported by WADA will be of little use as a point of defence since there was a gap of nearly two weeks between tests. The classic example of a previous test or even a subsequent one having come negative and yet having had no impact on the `positive' came in the Jerome Young case.

The Jerome Young case

The U.S. 400m runner, who was reprieved by an Appeals Board in 1999 for a steroid (nandrolone) violation and competed in the Sydney Olympics in 2000 had his case `revived' by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) in 2004.

Young had returned a positive on June 26, 1999 at the U.S. National championships in Eugene. Six days later, he tested negative for a sample collected at Lausanne, Switzerland. He also had a `negative' on June 12, 1999 at Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.

Young based his defence on the argument that he could not have possibly come `positive' in between two `negatives'. The Appeals Board accepted that argument and absolved him after the hearing panel ruled against him.

When the case was revived, CAS overturned the Appeals Board decision in June, 2004, ruling that the `negative' for the Lausanne sample and the `positive' for the Eugene sample were consistent with the excretion pattern of nandrolone. It did not even go into the merits of the argument about his June 12 sample having come `negative'.

(Young returned a positive test for EPO on July 23, 2004 and was subsequently banned for life. Though he lost the Sydney gold, the rest of the U.S. team members were allowed to keep their medals).

Reports from Melbourne mentioned that Raju had also returned a positive in an `in competition' test apart the `out of competition' positive he had earlier.

It is unlikely that Raju's case would be treated as two separate violations since it would be difficult for the IWF (or the Commonwealth Games Federation) to establish that the lifter had committed a second offence after being given notice of the first violation.

The consequences

If the charges are upheld for the use of steroid stanozolol, first by the Court of Arbitration (CAS) and then by the IWF, the lifters could be suspended for two years. But more than that, what could be of interest would be how the IWF will treat the latest cases by Indian lifters since, prior to the Games, woman lifter Shailaja Pujari had also returned a 'positive' in a WADA test.

Three `positives' in a year will mean one more suspension for the Indian federation, jeopardising India's participation in the Asian Games at the end of the year. This time the suspension could run up to a maximum of four years since it is a repeat offence within a 12-month period. (Before the team's departure, one of the selected lifters, B. Premelavalli had tested positive in a `home test' but that will not come under the purview of IWF).

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