The Hindu : Sport : Neelam will have to wait

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Thursday, Aug 16, 2007
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Neelam will have to wait

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Discus thrower Neelam Jaswant Singh will have to wait for some more time before she returns to competition even though she had completed her two-year suspension for a doping violation on August 11.

Charged with a doping offence for stimulant pemoline in the World championships in Helsinki in August 2005, Neelam had lost her appeal before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) last month.

Anti-doping rules require an athlete to undergo re-instatement testing before he or she is allowed back into competition. The rules of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) stipulate that an athlete suspended for one year or more will have to undergo a minimum of three out-of-competition tests, at the athlete’s cost, with at least three months between tests.

The IAAF will be responsible for the conduct of the tests but any test conducted by a competent agency (for example WADA) can be taken into account. In addition to the three out-of-competition tests, the athlete must undergo testing for the “full range of prohibited substances and methods” just prior to the end of his or her ineligibility period.

Neelam is learnt to have undergone two out-of-competition tests under IAAF authorisation during her suspension period.

A third test is expected to be completed soon. Her last test was done about two and a half months ago.

Final test soon

After the third test she will be tested for the full range of substances probably at her first competition. Though the final test is actually required to be done just before the end of the ineligibility period, quite often the practice has been to test the athlete at the first competition on return.

This is ostensibly done since out-of-competition tests do not involve the full range of banned substances.

The IAAF has indicated to the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) that the last test could probably be done during Neelam’s first competition.

Sample collection, of course, will be done by the IAAF or WADA and testing done at an accredited laboratory.

Comeback

Neelam, 36, former National record holder (64.55m) and Busan Asian Games gold medallist, plans to come back to competition as she had vowed on Independence Day exactly two years ago. “Yes, she will be back once the formalities are over,” reiterated her husband and coach Jaswant Singh on Wednesday.

“We had always stated that she will be back. Now that everything is over it is only a matter of a little more time. We have to start all over again, of course,” Jaswant told The Hindu over phone from Edmonton, Canada.

Asked about her first competition on her return, Jaswant said that at this point they were not sure about it.

“She may compete locally (in Canada) or else go to the US,” he said. “It could be one of the Indian meets also."

The coach said that Neelam had never given up training after her suspension.

“She is fit and she has been training regularly.”

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