Melbourne: India faced a ban upto four years in weightlifting competitions after it was confirmed on Friday that two of their lifters tested positive for a banned steroid stanozonol in the XVIII Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
Making the official announcement, Commonwealth Games Federation President Mike Fennell merely said that two Indian athletes had tested positive in a pre-event test, but the Indian officials had named the athletes - Tejinder Singh and Edwin Raju - on condition of anonymity on Thursday.
The CGF chief said both the 'A' and 'B' samples of the two athletes had returned positive and the matter has been referred to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which is a procedure as per the protocols governing dope cases of the Commonwealth Games.
Fennell said the protocols also did not allow for naming of athletes till CAS gave its ruling.
The CAS hearing is to be held on Saturday and the verdict is expected on Sunday.
Tejinder Singh pulled out of the 85-kg category competition at the last minute citing illness while Edwin Raju finished fourth in the 56-kg category.
Woman weightlifter Shailaja Pujari had tested positive in an out of competition tests conducted by WADA at a training camp in India prior to the contingent's departure to Melbourne.
Under section (16.3.2.1) of International Weightlifting Federation's rulebook: "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."
India are competing in its first international event after serving a one-year ban in 2004.
India's Chef de Mission HJ Dora, who is also the head of Indian Weightlifting Federation, stressed that any athlete found guilty of doping would be banned for life as per the bylaws of IWF.
However, Dora expressed surprise at the positive dope tests since the athletes underwent dope tests before they left India.
"We are determined to ensure that the testing process is fully scrutinised as the athletes in question have been subjected to three rounds of dope testing in the past month which have all been negative," Dora said.
"The last test on these two athletes by WADA was on March 1 and the weightlifters arrived in Melbourne on March 10."
Comments
0 comment