Anju Bobby George has been closely following the doping stories tumbling out of athletics’ dark vaults the last few weeks and she is hoping that an Olympic medal or a another World Championship medal comes her way.
While track and field buffs hungrily await the action from the World Championships, which begins in Beijing on Saturday, Anju is very excited with the recent news that the world body, IAAF, had suspended 28 athletes who had competed at the 2005 and 2007 Worlds.
Anju, whose long jump silver medal at the 2005 World Athletics Finals in Monaco was upgraded to gold early last year after the original winner Tatyana Kotova of Russia was disqualified for doping following re-testing of her sample taken in 2005, is thrilled with the improved scientific methods that now allow testers to find previously undetectable substances.
And with middle distance legend Sebastian Coe coming in as the new president of the IAAF on Wednesday, the 38-year-old feels that the massive cover-up in the sport would be removed which could probably bring her some very precious medals.
“At the 2004 Athens Olympics, the Russians (Tatyana Lebedeva, Irina Meleshina-Simagina and Tatyana Kotova) won all the medals. Later, two of them were suspended though their ban did not cover the Olympic period. If those medals given to the Russians are taken off, I would get a silver at that Olympics,” Anju, a bronze medallist at the 2003 Worlds in Paris — the country’s first-ever at the Worlds — told The Hindu .
Expecting two medals“A lot of reports have come out regarding doping the last few days (with Russian athletes being named as the biggest culprits), so we are eagerly waiting for some good results, especially since all the doping revelations that have now come out happened during my time, from 2001.
“I am expecting two medals, a silver or bronze from the 2004 Olympics, where I finished fifth, and a medal from the 2005 Worlds where I was fourth.”
Long jumper Anju finished sixth at the 2004 Athens Olympics (with 6.83m, which is still a National record) and it was later upgraded to fifth following American Marion Jones’ doping violation.
“And at the 2005 Worlds where I finished fifth, they later suspended Kotova who had finished above me and I went to fourth. If someone above me comes out positive when their stored samples are retested now, I would get a medal,” said Anju.
Still, it won’t be easy despite the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) bringing a longer statute of limitations for testing of stored samples, which was recently extended from eight to 10 years.
For the 2004 Athens Olympics was more than 11 years ago and the 2005 Worlds completed 10 years recently.
“In 2004, I was tested 16 times for dope, so what would be our thinking…that the IAAF was an honest and sincere body. We held the IAAF in great esteem, we never doubted its integrity but now we realise that it was not,” she said.
Waive 10-year periodAnd if there had been a cover-up where cheats were not exposed earlier to protect the sport, then even the 10-year period should be waived in such cases.
“It came as a big shock to clean athletes like me when we read about all the recent allegations against the IAAF. I think it was our bad luck that we were competing during that period,” she said.
“I had been waiting that someone strong and clean would come to lead the IAAF, so I expect something to happen now.”
If something like that that happens, Anju could be holding India’s first-ever Olympic medal in athletics.
