The Hindu : Sport : India tops Asian list in IAAF testing programme

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 18, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport - Sports : General

India tops Asian list in IAAF testing programme

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Though the country failed to make a global impact and managed just one gold medal in the Doha Asian Games, Indian athletics still topped the Asian list in the number of athletes tested last year under the testing programme of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

In the figures for out-of-competition dope testing, released for the first time by the IAAF, India leads the Asian chart with 40 of its athletes having been tested by international agencies at least once last season. Many of them would have been tested a number of times. No positive test was reported though there were many cases of "missed tests".

At the world level, India came fourth behind Russia (112 athletes tested), Kenya (70) and the United States (69). In Asia, China came second behind India with 28, Qatar had 10 and Japan eight.

For a country that does not have many world-class athletes, barring Anju George, the numbers from India could be a surprise. But the manner in which the IAAF and the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) mounted "extra missions" last year in an effort to discourage Indian dopers was bound to swell numbers.

Surprisingly, the entire batch of middle and long distance runners were completely ignored by the testers. Also escaping attention were some of the prominent male triple jumpers.

The tested athletes:

Men: Jagdish Basak, K.M. Binu, Jagdish Bishnoi, Sunil Goswami, Anil Kumar, Vishal Saxena, P. Shankar, Amritpal Singh, Anil Singh, Bhupinder Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Jora Singh, Kuldev Singh, Kulwinder Singh, Maha Singh, Malkit Singh, Naunidh Singh, Navpreet Singh, Ranvijay Singh, Satbir Singh, Kuldeep Singh Mann, P.S. Sreejith, Gajanan Updhyaya, P.J. Vinod and Shiv Shankar Yadav.

Women: Seema Antil, Soma Biswas, Anju Bobby George, Suman Devi, Satti Geetha, Harwant Kaur, Manjeet Kaur, Rajwinder Kaur, Sagardeep Kaur, Krishna Poonia, Mukti Saha, J.J. Shobha, Susmita Singha Roy, Chetna Solanki and Chitra Soman.

Ashok Kumar bags title

Ashok Kumar claimed his third straight title on the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) by beating S. Madaiah 4 and 3 in the SRF matchplay golf final at the Noida Golf Club course on Saturday.

Ashok's fourth title-triumph in five appearances on this course gave him the winner's cheque of Rs. 5.20 lakh. Madaiah settled for Rs. 2,60 lakh.

For the third place, worth Rs. 1.60 lakh, Arjun Singh defeated Randhir Ghotra 2 and 1. Ghotra received Rs. one lakh.

In the 36-hole final, Ashok looked in trouble between the 10th and the 18th holes where he had to recover to stay on par. In the second half, Ashok seized control and dropped just one hole on way to sealing the title after the 33rd hole on being four up.

The results (final): Ashok Kumar bt S. Madaiah 4 and 3; For third place: Arjun Singh bt Randhir Ghotra 2 and 1. — Special Correspondent

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport