Topic: News: Not Just Busted Athletes Banned But Coaches Too!

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Pratima and Chanu ineligible to compete in Beijing

 NEW DELHI: Pratima Kumari and Sanamacha Chanu, currently serving two-year suspensions following their positive tests at the Athens Olympic Games, will not be eligible to compete in the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Pratima and Chanu will be completing their suspension period in August this year.

They would be able to get back into the competitive field after they complete a set of out of competition tests as prescribed under the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) anti-doping rules. But they would still be ineligible to compete in the next Olympics.

Strict measures

The IWF has ruled that those having committed doping offences at the Athens Olympics, during "in or out of competition tests" in August 2004, would "not be allowed to attend any Beijing Olympics qualification event (the 2006 and 2007 World Championships as well as the continental Olympic qualification competitions) and the 2008 Olympic Games.

A recent IWF circular reminded the National federations about this decision taken in March 2004 by the IWF Executive Board and later approved by the Congress.

The IWF has also decided "in the interest of doping-free Olympic Games 2008" to bar the coaches who accompanied the "guilty competitors" from attending the Beijing Olympics.

The IWF stated that in the "interest of the doping free weightlifting events at the 2008 Olympic Games" the IWF was going to lay down an elaborate doping control system to be applied en route to the Games.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Lifters Banned Fast, No Verdict Yet for Coaches

NEW DELHI: It is a unique situation when a body, currently suspended, is announcing bans on its players. But that’s the way the cookie crumbles in Indian sport. Has the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) acted too harshly in announcing life bans on lifters Edwin Raju and Tejinder Singh? Was the IWF trying to save its own officials and coaches who may be behind the doping scandal but the lifters were being conveniently made the scapegoats?

The primary job of the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) was to avoid a doping scandal at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne which it has failed to do. Besides Raju and Singh, two women lifters Prameelavalli and Sailaja Poojari were also caught in pre-Games test by various other agencies. Wada’s (World Anti-Doping Agency) Laussane Declaration says that along with the punishment for the caught athlete, his/her coach and officials attached to the team should also be held responsible and in fact they should be given stricter punishment than the athlete.

DNA asked IWF president HJ Dora on Monday about the action against coaches and officials. Dora said: “Where is the proof or evidences against the coaches and officials?” It’s always been the case in Indian weightlifting—the lifters get the ban while the coaches and officials’ involvement will be left to an inquiry panel which will virtually mean no action in the end.

Dora has appointed a two-member inquiry committee headed by Indian Olympic Association treasurer AK Mattoo, to enquire into the role of the others. “The inquiry committee will see the roles of officials, coaches and other things,” Dora told DNA on Monday.

IWF’s decision to slap a life ban on Raju and Singh is harsher than what Wada prescribes for a first-time offence. Under international rules, the general punishment is a two-year ban for the first time and a life ban for second offence. Both Singh and Raju had tested positive for the first  time in their careers. But Dora said: “We had changed our rules in 2004 in our Mumbai AGM.”

Can IWF go against the practice laid down under Wada? “The federation of a number of countries have framed their own rules against doping, which may be against the punishment prescribed by the National Olympic Association (IOA in India’s case) or Wada. But this is our rule,” said Dora.

His justification for the severe punishment on Raju and Singh is: “We had no option. We have to send a message to the lifters to stop doping. If they want to go to the court let them go. Nobody can stop them.”

Do rules really apply?

* Edwin Raju & Tejinder Singh get life ban but no action against coaches or officials
 
* 4 lifters caught for doping in a span of 15 days but IWF yet to take responsibility for the scandal
 
* Wada says 2-year ban for first-time offence but IWF says they changed the rule in 2004 in Mumbai AGM and now their punishment is a life ban