Dope ban a warning for all
In banning seven prominent athletes for failing dope tests earlier this year, the National Anti-Doping Agency has sought to send out a clear signal — that cheating carries a heavy price.
In their mitigation, the Nada-appointed panel which heard appeals from the athletes and their representatives and also reviewed the testing process and evidence, accepted that six of the nabbed sportspersons — all women quarter-milers — did not knowingly ingest a banned substance and hence gave them the lightest possible sentence. The seventh, a male long-jumper, got the heavier punishment as in his case the matter was a more open and shut one. At the same time, the committee also underlined the hard fact that it is the athlete who is ultimately responsible for what she or he consumes, and that ignorance is not an acceptable excuse for such infringements.
In the present case, the Ukrainian coach of the women runners is alleged to have procured a ginseng-based health product from China that also contained the banned steroid methamedinone. This emerged in out-of-competition testing. Three of the six women were members of the team that won the 4x400-metre relays at both the Commonwealth and Asian Games last year and the others nabbed were at the same national camp in Patiala, giving weight to their defence that it was coach Iiuri Ogorodnik who was responsible for their plight. But as often happens in such cases, there is no straightforward narrative as two of the athletes had produced positive results for yet another steroid in an earlier test. These two — Mandeep Kaur and Juana Murmu — thus benefited from the “double jeopardy” clause and were judged with the others and punished for one offence.
Let it not be forgotten that this is only the tip of the iceberg for Nada had earlier this year uncovered a rash of dope-related infringements. The organisation has widened its net too, testing footballers involved in the ongoing professional I-League as well for the first time, but much remains to be done if the doping menace is to be brought under even a semblance of control. At the same time, uncovering drug cheating is just one step in the overall process. Equally important is educating the athletes on dope-related hazards, and also rehabilitating those who have strayed across the line. At the moment, no process exists to help drug cheats who are suspended or expelled and shunned thereafter, often relying entirely on family support to rebuild their lives. With rewards, awards and stakes for winning medals getting ever higher, the inducement to push the barriers is immense and efforts to keep sports drug-free must cater to the problem at every level, be it control, awareness or recovery.
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