Leaked reports claim Indian athletes account for 5% of ‘abnormal’ results
NEARLY 70 blood samples belonging to elite Indian athletes who were tested between 2001 and 2012 are found to be suspicious, according to leaked International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) data that was released by Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper.
The files state that five percent of the 1,400 ‘abnormal’ tests recorded from almost 800 athletes in 94 countries are from India. The leaked files contain a vast record of 12,359 blood tests taken from more than 5,000 athletes in 208 countries between 2001 and 2012. Russia tops the list with 30 percent of the 1,400 suspicious samples followed by Ukraine with 28 percent.
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It must be noted that according to an IAAF report, India is also among the top-three dope offenders in athletics. In 2013, 91 Indian athletes tested positive for banned substances, putting the country only behind Russia (212) and Turkey (155).
Sunday Times and German broadcaster ARD/WDR reported on Sunday they had obtained secret data from the IAAF, supplied by a whistleblower which claimed that a culture of widespread blood doping exists in athletics and added that endurance runners suspected of doping had been winning a third of the medals at Olympic Games and World Championships in the 12-year period.
It was alleged that the IAAF did little to clamp down on ‘blatant cases’ that stood out in the data, a charge that has been denied by the world governing body. A break-up of the blood samples tested by the IAAF revealed that samples of Indian athletes too have returned suspicious results.
However, sports secretary Ajit Sharan, who is also the CEO of National Dope Test Laboratory (NDTL), said none of the blood samples they tested have returned positive. “None of the samples tested at NDTL have resulted in positive tests so far. This is across disciplines and not just athletics,” Sharan said.
Athletics Federation of India (AFI) president Adille Sumariwalla said they were not in possession of the details of the report but suggested blood doping is unlikely in India. “I don’t think we (athletes and coaches) have the technical expertise to do blood doping in India. We have to get further details of IAAF leaks to ascertain if these samples relate to blood doping case or cases where samples are showing variation from normal parameters,” Sumariwalla said.
Another senior AFI official, however, said the numbers were ‘alarming’. It is learnt that two Indian athletes tested positive for EPO recently, but those were at lower level meets where athletes are not thoroughly monitored. “Elite athletes by and large have refrained from such activities because they are constantly monitored at camps and tournaments. However, the IAAF conducts tests only on them so these revelations do come as a surprise. The number of suspicious results are alarming,” the official said. “If these are elite athletes, the IAAF should have written to us so that we could follow that lead.”
