The Hindu : Sport / Weightlifting : Satish Rai banned for life

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Satish Rai banned for life

Special Correspondent

— FILE Photo

Satish Rai.

NEW DELHI: Nineteen months after he tested positive for a second time in his career, the Indian Weightlifting Federation has imposed a life ban on weightlifter Satish Rai.

The decision, conveyed to Rai through a letter, about 20 days ago, according to federation Secretary, B.R. Gulati, brought to a close a contentious doping case. It had remained unresolved till the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) recently intervened and forced the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) to seek clarifications from the Indian federation.

Rai had first tested positive for stimulant strychnine at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester and then for a second time at the National Games in Guwahati in February last year, this time for steroid stanozolol.

Unable to determine whether these two offences constituted a life ban, since the first violation was for a stimulant, the Indian federation dragged its feet for 10 months before deciding to set up a panel. By then the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) had disqualified him from the 85kg competition in Guwahati and recommended further action to the federation. Rai, a Karnataka lifter and an Arjuna awardee, had represented Andhra Pradesh in the last National Games.

Inconclusive

After the deliberations of a panel headed by federation vice president G.R. Beig remained inconclusive, President Harbhajan Singh decided to reprieve Rai last June without a suspension. This followed Rai’s assurance to the federation that he had retired.

Gulati said that even on Thursday, the IWF was in touch with him seeking a copy of the letter issued to Rai so that “WADA could close his case.”

WADA had taken up the Rai case with the IWF following media reports that the lifter was being reprieved even after a second offence. It did not find any merit in the argument that Rai had retired and could thus escape the life ban.

Meanwhile, of the four junior lifters who tested positive at last month’s junior National championship in Noida, B. Prameelavalli faces a life ban since this is her second offence for steroids. The Andhra lifter had returned a ‘positive’ in an out-of-competition test carried out by WADA prior to the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006.

The three others who tested positive in the Noida meet were Pramod Goswami (56kg) and Manjit Singh (77kg) of Uttar Pradesh, which has been put under suspension, and P. Bhuvana (53kg) of Puducherry.

Provisional suspension

Gulati said that the ‘B’ samples of all the four lifters had also come ‘positive’. All of them had been put under provisional suspension and the rest of the procedures would follow, he added.

Gulati could not confirm whether Prameelavalli was tested at an accredited laboratory, as required under the rules, before being re-instated following her 2006 suspension that ended on March 1, 2008.

In the meantime, the IWF has placed Kavita Devi, who tested positive before the Asian championships last May, under a four-year suspension ending on April 7, 2012.

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