Five athletes have been found to have violated anti-doping rules and suspended by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA)following recent decisions of the disciplinary panels.
The athletes are: Orissa sprinter Ranjita Mahanta, Karnataka distance runner Sabeena, Karnataka long jumper Avin Kumar, Uttar Pradeshdistance runner Jagdish Patel and Haryana discus thrower Dharamvir Singh.
All had tested positive for steroids and all except Patel had been suspended for two years. Patel, a distance runner, aged 16 years, was shown some leniency by the panel headed by retired judge Dinesh Dayal, and given a one-year suspension.
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Patel tested positive for steroid nandrolone at the National cross-country championships in Pune in January last. For an endurance event, nandrolone might look an unsuitable choice of drug if indeed performance-enhancement was behind the athlete's motives.
The panel went by his age, his rural background, his literacy level etc. in determining that he could be shown leniency since he hadproduced medical prescriptions to support his administration of Decabolin (nandrolone) injections.
Patel said he had suffered typhoid and was prescribed the drug by a doctor at the Community Health Centre, Kerakat, Jaunpur, UP. “The medicines prescribed to the athlete on 26.11.2011 conform to the treatment which is given to patients of Typhoid in such ruraldispensaries,” the panel stated in its order.
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Debatable argument
The argument could be debatable. In a comparable case in 2010, wrestler Kavita Chaudhary was exonerated by the Dayal panel for the use of Deca-Durabolin injections, but that was for a shoulder injury. Kavita was eventually suspended for one year when the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) went in appeal to the National appeal panel.
Ranjita, who had represented the country at the World Youth championships in Bressanone, Italy, in 2009, had not turned up for hearing for nearly two years and was finally handed down a two-year suspension in an ex-parte decision. The suspension will run from the decision date, May 15 last.
Her absence from the proceedings meant that she would actually be serving a four-year suspension instead of two.
The 18-year-old Ranjita had tested positive for nandrolone at the National Youth championships at Coimbatore in April, 2010 when she took the sprint double and was also part of the gold-winning 1000m sprint medley team of Orissa. Ranjita set National youth records of 12.08s and 24.49s for the 100m and 200m.
Avin Kumar (long jump silver with 7.19m) and Sabeena (women's half marathon gold in 1:14:30.39) had tested positive in the inter-university championships at Moodabidri, Karnataka, last December. Avin tested positive for steroid methandienone and stimulant mephentermine while Sabeena had turned in a ‘positive' for stanozolol.
Dharamvir had tested positive for stanozolol and testosterone at the inter-Railway championships in Bhubaneswar last February. He had wonthe silver in discus there with 48.11m.