FROM THE STANDS
S R Khelkoodkar
Sunday saw the end of this round of the Commonwealth Games, one in which India has turned in a series of remarkable performances, although the unkind say that it was because the best teams even from the Commonwealth did not participate.
The Indian journalists, god bless them, also did a fairly good job of reporting. When they want to, they deliver.
Be that as it may, the women`s hockey team won silver, although the men lost out. There has been an assortment of gold medals in boxing, table tennis, weightlifting, and other sports. However, these Games will be remembered, from an Indian perspective for two reasons - one good and, as usual, one not so good.
The Indian shooting contingent has exceeded most expectations. Not too many people would have imagined an overall haul of 16 gold, seven silver, and four bronze medals. In fact, shooter Samaresh Jung has been named the Best Athlete of the 18 th Commonwealth Games - an honour never before held by an Indian.
But an old problem refuses to go away. Two Indian weightlifters have been confirmed by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) to have tested positive for a banned steroid called Stanozonol. And this has happened in the first international event that Indian weightlifters have competed in since serving a one-year ban in 2004.
Being a repeat offence, therefore, the punishment is likely to be more severe, and it is reported that India now faces a ban of up to four years in weightlifting competitions.
Quoting the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) rulebook, the Hindustan Times says, "If three or more violations of these Anti-Doping Rules are committed... by Athletes or other Persons affiliated with a National Federation within a 12-month period in testing conducted by the IWF or Anti-Doping Organizations other than the National Federation or its National Anti-Doping Organization, then the IWF may suspend that National Federation`s membership for a period of up to four years."
In other words, you might argue, we were basically third time unlucky.
Of course, you wonder why the Indian weightlifting federation, presumably aware of this rule and the possibility of a long-term ban, were not more comprehensive in their own drugs tests.
However, according to a report in The Telegraph, officials in the Sports Authority of India (SAI) were as clueless about what was happening as everyone else.
"We are puzzled and perplexed. Only after the SAI (Sports Authority of India) had tested the lifters on March 1 were they cleared to travel on March 8. We are puzzled as to what happened in the meanwhile," a source is reported to have said.
According to the newspaper, the scandal broke despite the Indian Weightlifting Federation taking stringent measures to prevent any such incidents by subjecting its lifters to a series of dope checks in which top medal prospects like Shailaja (75kg) and B. Prameelavalli (63kg) were filtered out.
The murkiness, as you might expect, does not end there. The official reactions to the issue have been disunited and often contradictory, and the press has had a field day unearthing unnamed sources and, of course, lots of dirty linen.
First of all, as the Hindustan Times reports, the official statement by the CGF had made no mention of names, merely saying that two Indian athletes had tested positive. But it was not long before the names were made available to the press through Indian officials, under the condition of anonymity, naturally.
Furthermore, according to official international procedure, the names are not made public until the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has made a ruling after the authorities have had an opportunity to present a hearing. However, says the Times of India, the CAS announced on Sunday that it had once again postponed the hearings at the request of the Indian authorities. This is after postponing it on Saturday for the same reason. They said that with laboratories and other offices closed on the weekend in India, they needed more time to present a case," said a top CAS official.
A rather novel reason for asking for a postponement, you might say.
And it also didn`t take too much time for finger-pointing to begin. The most interesting instance of this must surely be the one reported by the Telegraph. According to the paper, one SAI doctor, talking about how it was possible for tests to turn out positive after SAI tests on March 1 had turned out negative, apparently said:
"All samples were sent to the dope control laboratory in Delhi before the squad left for Melbourne, yet such things happened. Let someone in the SAI explain why former dope control laboratory in-charge Dr Pradeep Gupta was transferred to Sonepat a few years ago. I am not implying anything, but these things need to be probed."
Indeed.