Continuing its drive to catch drug cheats following the athletics doping scandal, the National Anti Doping Agency on Saturday conducted its third raid in a week at a Sports Authority of India facility with a surprise early morning swoop down at the Bhopal Centre.
A NADA team, headed by Manpal Singh, began the raid at 8.00 a.m., checked the rooms of the trainees at the Centre for banned substances and took random urine samples from them.
“NADA deputed a team of officers today, the 16th July 2011, from Delhi and Bhopal headed by Mr. Manpal Singh and included two technical officers of NADA and two lady Doping Control Officers to conduct surprise check in SAI Bhopal,” NADA Director General Rahul Bhatnagar said in a statement.
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“The team reached the SAI centre at 8:00 am and checked rooms of sportspersons for banned substances and also took urine sample on a random basis,” the statement said.
“Twentyfive urine samples — wushu (5 men, 5 women), boxing (5 women), judo (5 women), hockey (3 women), watersport (2 women) — were also taken on a random basis and will be sent to National Dope Testing Laboratory for testing,” Bhatnagar said.
The team checked 38 rooms (10 women and 28 men) of sportspersons at the hostels. Samples of food supplements and other medicines found in seven rooms were sealed and brought for testing.
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NADA said it would continue its drive against doping in sports in the country and surprise checks will be carried out at other centers where athletes are training.