The Hindu : Sport / Wrestling : Kavita exonerated

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Kavita exonerated

Special Correspondent

The panel was convinced that she had approached a Government doctor
It was critical of the facilities at the STC, Hissar

NEW DELHI: The National Anti-Doping Disciplinary panel has exonerated a 14-year-old girl wrestler, Kavita Chaudhary, who tested positive for steroid nandrolone in an out-of-competition test last January.

The panel, chaired by retired Additional District Judge Dinesh Dayal, ruled recently that considering her age, Kavita could not be held responsible for not having realised what medicine was being prescribed to her for a shoulder injury by a Government doctor.

Kavita, a trainee at the Sports Training Centre (STC), Hissar, Haryana, was administered three injections of Deca-Durabolin (nandrolone decanoate) at a Government dispensary at Assandh, Haryana, for a shoulder injury.

She could not receive any medical attention at STC, Hissar, and was thus forced to go to Assandh, she told the panel.

She tested positive for 19-norandrosterone, a metabolite of nandrolone with a concentration level of 19.6ng/ml which was significantly higher than the permitted threshold of 2ng/ml.

The panel noted that the athlete admitted taking the drug. When asked to get the details of the doctor who administered the drug, she went back and returned on the second hearing date and submitted the details, by which the panel was convinced that she had indeed approached a Government doctor.

Dr. Manish Goyal, the doctor who prescribed the medicine, was ignorant of the caution required while administering Deca-Durabolin, the panel stated in its order.

Banned substance

The drug was not only a banned substance under anti-doping rules it was not advisable to give this to persons in the paediatric age group, the panel said.

The panel ruled that Kavita had been able to establish that there was “no fault or negligence” on her part, considering the exceptional circumstances in the case.

It stated that she could not be expected to have the knowledge about the composition of the medicine nor could she be expected to have the capacity to find out about the same.

The panel was critical of the facilities at the STC, Hissar, and said that the girl should have been given proper medical support at the centre itself

“A request should be made to the appropriate authorities to hold an inquiry as to how a doctor at the Government CHC administered Decadurabolin to a girl of such tender age,” wrote the panel in its order.

Former international badminton player Dinesh Khanna and renowned rheumatologist Dr Anand Malaviya were the other members of the panel.

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