Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 15 (IANS) Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Thursday set up a panel to look into the large number of doping cases that have surfaced among weightlifters, leaving a question mark over their participation in Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games.
The four-member committee, headed by K.P. Singh Deo, will submit its report in a week’s time, it was decided in the executive council meeting of the IOA.

“The IOA has time and agian reiterated that Indian sport must be dope free. We are alarmed by the number of positive dope cases in weghtlifting. We are hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and we have the responsibility to see that the Games are dope free,” said IOA president Suresh Kalmadi Thursday.

Six weightlifters have proved positive in tests conducted by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA).

Four lifters have returned positive in an out of competition test conducted by WADA in a surprise visit to Pune where the trials for the Commonwealth championship were being held in the first week of September.

Two other lifters returned positive in tests done by NADA.

The Indian Weighlifting Federation (IWF) has been twice banned from taking part in international competitions. If IWF is banned again, the lifters would have to sit out of next year’s Commonwealth Games.

The Internatioal Weightlifting Federation’s anti-doping rule says that the “national federation could be banned from any IWF activities for a period of up to two years if three or more violations are committed by athletes within a 12-month period in testing conducted by the IWF or anti-doping organisations other than the national federation or its national anti-doping organisation.”

The federation could also be fined at least $50,000 by the world organisation.

IWF secretary B.R. Gulati said that the lifters who returned positive in the WADA test would have their B sample tested.