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Athletes who train under unregistered coaches will not be recommended for national awards: AFI
Athletes who train under unregistered coaches will not be recommended for national awards: AFI

Hindustan Times

time07-07-2025

  • Sport
  • Hindustan Times

Athletes who train under unregistered coaches will not be recommended for national awards: AFI

New Delhi, The Athletics Federation of India will not recommend anyone who trains with unregistered coaches for national honours like the Arjuna and Khel Ratna award, a move that it hopes will help tackle the spiralling doping cases in the sport's national circuit. Athletes who train under unregistered coaches will not be recommended for national awards: AFI The involvement of coaches in doping by track-and-field athletes has been an open secret. The AFI, in recent times, has tried to deal with the matter by launching some initiatives of its own apart from the regular mechanism of vigorous testing and awareness campaigns. Recently, the AFI set a July 31 deadline for mandatory registration of all the coaches qualified and unqualified in the country, making it clear that non compliance of the directive will lead to their blacklisting. "We are hoping that the coaches register themselves. After that, we are going to make it public that only these are the registered coaches. Those who have not registered they will be blacklisted," AFI spokesperson Adille Sumariwalla told PTI. "If an athlete trains with an unregistered coach, the AFI will not recommend the athlete for any national award if he or she wins medals. Such athletes cannot get anything." "I believe coaches, even parents today, are involved in doping. This is unfortunate," said Sumariwalla, a former AFI president. Sumariwalla is a vocal advocate of criminalisation of doping as he feels unless dope offenders are sent to jail, tackling the menace will be difficult. However, the National Anti-Doping Act, 2022 provides no such measures. "I am not in the Parliament, but we have to do something. All those who are involved in doping will have to be sent to jail. Only then people will realise that this is not a joke. If you want to win this fight, you have to take some drastic steps," said Sumariwalla who is also a vice president of World Athletics. "Otherwise within the law, we have to do what we have to do. But today, nothing happens. They just go scot-free or they get four years, then they say, yes, we have taken and make it three years. "All this nonsense has to stop," he said referring to the reduction of the ban period through case resolution agreement by early admission of guilt by the athlete. Alarmed by the rising doping cases among Indian track and field athletes, the AFI, in its AGM in Chandigarh in January, made it compulsory for all coaches to register with it or else they would be blacklisted. Unregistered coaches will not be permitted to impart training to athletes and will not be engaged in any activity of the AFI under any circumstances. Upon successful registration, each coach will be allotted a unique registration number by the AFI and an ID card will be issued. In addition, the AFI has also decided to form an anti-doping cell to identify coaches suspected to be "involved in doping of their wards" and for drawing up a list of training centres which serve as "hideouts" for cheats on the recommendation of a high-powered committee to deal with the menace. The AFI will share this intelligence with the National Anti-Doping Agency and Athletics Integrity Unit established by World Athletics. 'New National Sports Policy is good but implementation key' ===================================== Sumariwalla said the new Khelo Bharat Niti , which got Cabinet approval on July 1, was a well-crafted one with its thrust of accountable and clean governance, infrastructure upgradation and promotion of a league culture. "I think it is a very good policy. See, if you want good governance, you need a good policy. If you look at the policy overall, it has four or five very important pillars. "One is excellence, two is infrastructure, three is sports science, four is social upliftment, five is the industry of sports. So, if you have these five pillars, I think it is a well-crafted policy. "In India, policy is not the problem, the implementation of the policy is the problem. So we hope that the implementation will be good." This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.

India's doping woes: WADA numbers shows high positivity rate for India
India's doping woes: WADA numbers shows high positivity rate for India

Business Standard

time20-06-2025

  • Sport
  • Business Standard

India's doping woes: WADA numbers shows high positivity rate for India

India's doping woes came to the fore once again with the country topping the World Anti-Doping Agency's 2023 testing figures among countries which analysed 5,000 or more samples even as the sports ministry promised an "aggressive clean-up" and an amended Anti-Doping Act after addressing objections from the WADA. India's positivity rate for banned substances stood at 3.8 per cent -- 214 Adverse Analytical Findings (AAF) from 5606 samples. The sample size was significantly higher from 2022 when 3865 tests returned an AAF rate of 3.2 per cent. Of the 5606 tests, 2748 were conducted in-competition. India's positivity rate for banned substances was significantly higher than China (28,197 samples, 0.2 per cent AAF rate), USA (6798 samples, 1.0 per cent AAF rate), France (11,368 samples, 0.9 per cent AAF rate), Germany (15,153 samples, 0.4 per cent AAF rate) and Russia (10,395 samples, 1.0 per cent AAF rate). As compared to India's 214, France, Russia, USA, China and Germany recorded 105, 99, 66, 60 and 57 AAFs respectively. "Any amount of doping is unacceptable but we have to acknowledge that our testing is vigorous and with every year the sample size is increasing. With our aggressive awareness campaigns, we intend to bring the numbers down in the next two years," a sports ministry source said when approached for a comment on the latest report. Globally, 204,809 tests were conducted in 2023, of which 1820 came positive for banned drugs with India's share of 214 accounting for over 11 per cent of the total number of offenders, the highest for any country. In all, Delhi's National Dope testing Laboratory (NDTL) tested 6,077 samples, including those from neighbouring countries. It's Adverse Analytical Findings (AAF) rate of 3.63 per cent makes up the highest percentage of positive dope results among the 30 WADA-accredited facilities across the world. Athletics leads the number of India's positive cases with 61 AAFs from 1223 samples -- 567 in-competition and 539 out-of-competition urine samples as well as 117 blood samples. One AAF was reported from among the blood samples. Weightlifting accounted for 38 AAFs from 451 samples, while powerlifting and wrestling contributed 28 and 10 AAFs respectively. The numbers have expectedly raised an alarm and an admission that the country is yet to implement its Anti-Doping Act, which was passed in 2022, due to objections from WADA on some unspecified provisions. "The NADA bill will be brought back to the Parliament after a restructuring. We have addressed the objections raised by WADA, which required changes to certain provisions," a sports ministry source said. The National Anti-Doping Act, 2022 empowers the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) with legal authority and investigative powers similar to law enforcement bodies. NADA even conducted a workshop recently involving officers of CBI and INTERPOL to understand doping investigation mechanisms, including interrogation of suspected dope offenders and banned substances' suppliers. "The ministry is going to tackle this menace aggressively. There will be compulsory monthly doping awareness programmes and nutritional supplements will be tested at specialised labs in Gandhinagar and Delhi to ensure that they do not contain prohibited substances," a ministry source said. "Most of the time, doping by a young athlete is either unintentional due to lack of knowledge or in desperation to get that one national performance that would help in getting a government job. But we will drill it into their psyche that they have more to lose if they don't comply with anti-doping rules," he added. A NADA source said that India has demonstratively upped its numbers as far as testing is concerned and in relative terms, there has been a marginal decline in positivity rate. "We had nearly the same positivity rate when we tested close to 4000 samples and now that rate has more or less remained the same with 1500 more tests this year. So, in relative terms there is a decline," he said. "But of course, even this number is unacceptable given our ambition to be a sporting powerhouse," he added. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

India's doping woes: WADA numbers show India has highest positivity rate among major countries
India's doping woes: WADA numbers show India has highest positivity rate among major countries

The Hindu

time20-06-2025

  • Sport
  • The Hindu

India's doping woes: WADA numbers show India has highest positivity rate among major countries

India's doping woes came to the fore once again with the country topping the World Anti-Doping Agency's 2023 testing figures among countries which analysed 5,000 or more samples even as the sports ministry promised an "aggressive clean-up" and an amended Anti-Doping Act after addressing objections from the WADA. India's positivity rate for banned substances stood at 3.8% -- 214 Adverse Analytical Findings (AAF) from 5606 samples. The sample size was significantly higher from 2022 when 3865 tests returned an AAF rate of 3.2%. Of the 5606 tests, 2748 were conducted in-competition. India's positivity rate for banned substances was significantly higher than China (28,197 samples, 0.2% AAF rate), USA (6798 samples, 1.0% AAF rate), France (11,368 samples, 0.9% AAF rate), Germany (15,153 samples, 0.4% AAF rate) and Russia (10,395 samples, 1.0% AAF rate). As compared to India's 214, France, Russia, USA, China and Germany recorded 105, 99, 66, 60 and 57 AAFs respectively. "Any amount of doping is unacceptable but we have to acknowledge that our testing is vigorous and with every year the sample size is increasing. With our aggressive awareness campaigns, we intend to bring the numbers down in the next two years," a sports ministry source said when approached for a comment on the latest report. Globally, 204,809 tests were conducted in 2023, of which 1,820 came positive for banned drugs with India's share of 214 accounting for over 11% of the total number of offenders, the highest for any country. In all, Delhi's National Dope testing Laboratory (NDTL) tested 6,077 samples, including those from neighbouring countries. It's Adverse Analytical Findings (AAF) rate of 3.63% makes up the highest percentage of positive dope results among the 30 WADA-accredited facilities across the world. Athletics leads the number of India's positive cases with 61 AAFs from 1223 samples — 567 in-competition and 539 out-of-competition urine samples as well as 117 blood samples. One AAF was reported from among the blood samples. Weightlifting accounted for 38 AAFs from 451 samples, while powerlifting and wrestling contributed 28 and 10 AAFs respectively. The numbers have expectedly raised an alarm and an admission that the country is yet to implement its Anti-Doping Act, which was passed in 2022, due to objections from WADA on some unspecified provisions. "The NADA bill will be brought back to the Parliament after a restructuring. We have addressed the objections raised by WADA, which required changes to certain provisions," a sports ministry source said. The National Anti-Doping Act, 2022 empowers the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) with legal authority and investigative powers similar to law enforcement bodies. NADA even conducted a workshop recently involving officers of CBI and INTERPOL to understand doping investigation mechanisms, including interrogation of suspected dope offenders and banned substances' suppliers. "The ministry is going to tackle this menace aggressively. There will be compulsory monthly doping awareness programmes and nutritional supplements will be tested at specialised labs in Gandhinagar and Delhi to ensure that they do not contain prohibited substances," a ministry source said. "Most of the time, doping by a young athlete is either unintentional due to lack of knowledge or in desperation to get that one national performance that would help in getting a government job. But we will drill it into their psyche that they have more to lose if they don't comply with anti-doping rules," he added. A NADA source said that India has demonstratively upped its numbers as far as testing is concerned and in relative terms, there has been a marginal decline in positivity rate. "We had nearly the same positivity rate when we tested close to 4000 samples and now that rate has more or less remained the same with 1500 more tests this year. So, in relative terms there is a decline," he said. "But of course, even this number is unacceptable given our ambition to be a sporting powerhouse," he added.

India's doping woes: WADA numbers show India has highest positivity rate among major countries
India's doping woes: WADA numbers show India has highest positivity rate among major countries

Time of India

time20-06-2025

  • Sport
  • Time of India

India's doping woes: WADA numbers show India has highest positivity rate among major countries

India 's doping woes came to the fore once again with the country topping the World Anti-Doping Agency 's 2023 testing figures among countries which analysed 5,000 or more samples even as the sports ministry promised an "aggressive clean-up" and an amended Anti-Doping Act after addressing objections from the WADA. India's positivity rate for banned substances stood at 3.8 per cent -- 214 Adverse Analytical Findings (AAF) from 5606 samples. The sample size was significantly higher from 2022 when 3865 tests returned an AAF rate of 3.2 per cent. Of the 5606 tests, 2748 were conducted in-competition. India's positivity rate for banned substances was significantly higher than China (28,197 samples, 0.2 per cent AAF rate), USA (6798 samples, 1.0 per cent AAF rate), France (11,368 samples, 0.9 per cent AAF rate), Germany (15,153 samples, 0.4 per cent AAF rate) and Russia (10,395 samples, 1.0 per cent AAF rate). As compared to India's 214, France, Russia, USA, China and Germany recorded 105, 99, 66, 60 and 57 AAFs respectively. "Any amount of doping is unacceptable but we have to acknowledge that our testing is vigorous and with every year the sample size is increasing. With our aggressive awareness campaigns, we intend to bring the numbers down in the next two years," a sports ministry source said when approached for a comment on the latest report. Live Events Globally, 204,809 tests were conducted in 2023, of which 1820 came positive for banned drugs with India's share of 214 accounting for over 11 per cent of the total number of offenders, the highest for any country. In all, Delhi's National Dope testing Laboratory (NDTL) tested 6,077 samples, including those from neighbouring countries. It's Adverse Analytical Findings (AAF) rate of 3.63 per cent makes up the highest percentage of positive dope results among the 30 WADA-accredited facilities across the world. Athletics leads the number of India's positive cases with 61 AAFs from 1223 samples -- 567 in-competition and 539 out-of-competition urine samples as well as 117 blood samples. One AAF was reported from among the blood samples. Weightlifting accounted for 38 AAFs from 451 samples, while powerlifting and wrestling contributed 28 and 10 AAFs respectively. The numbers have expectedly raised an alarm and an admission that the country is yet to implement its Anti-Doping Act, which was passed in 2022, due to objections from WADA on some unspecified provisions. "The NADA bill will be brought back to the Parliament after a restructuring. We have addressed the objections raised by WADA, which required changes to certain provisions," a sports ministry source said. The National Anti-Doping Act, 2022 empowers the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) with legal authority and investigative powers similar to law enforcement bodies. NADA even conducted a workshop recently involving officers of CBI and INTERPOL to understand doping investigation mechanisms, including interrogation of suspected dope offenders and banned substances' suppliers. "The ministry is going to tackle this menace aggressively. There will be compulsory monthly doping awareness programmes and nutritional supplements will be tested at specialised labs in Gandhinagar and Delhi to ensure that they do not contain prohibited substances," a ministry source said. "Most of the time, doping by a young athlete is either unintentional due to lack of knowledge or in desperation to get that one national performance that would help in getting a government job. But we will drill it into their psyche that they have more to lose if they don't comply with anti-doping rules," he added. A NADA source said that India has demonstratively upped its numbers as far as testing is concerned and in relative terms, there has been a marginal decline in positivity rate. "We had nearly the same positivity rate when we tested close to 4000 samples and now that rate has more or less remained the same with 1500 more tests this year. So, in relative terms there is a decline," he said. "But of course, even this number is unacceptable given our ambition to be a sporting powerhouse," he added.

Doping charge: Karnataka High Court sets aside four-year ban imposed on national level basketball player Shashank Rai
Doping charge: Karnataka High Court sets aside four-year ban imposed on national level basketball player Shashank Rai

The Hindu

time31-05-2025

  • The Hindu

Doping charge: Karnataka High Court sets aside four-year ban imposed on national level basketball player Shashank Rai

Terming the actions of anti-doping agencies 'a classic illustration of breach of sample integrity' and absence of fair hearing, the High Court of Karnataka set aside the four-year ban imposed on State's national-level basketball player Shashank J. Rai in 2022 after he tested positive of a prohibited drug in a dope test. Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order recently while allowing a petition filed by Mr. Rai, a national-level basketball player, who is a Deputy Range Forest Officer in the State. Mr. Rai was banned from basketball for four years in October, 2022, and the Anti-Doping Appellate Authority (ADAA) in April, 2024, rejected his appeal against the ban. 'From pork, not drug abuse' The court said that the agencies, including ADAA had failed to apply their mind in the manner known to law on the claim of the player, who presented his case with vital material rooted in plausible biochemical explanation. The player claimed that he is a regular pork eater, and exogenous traces of 19-Norandrosterone (19-NA) substance detected in his urine were consistent with the ingestion of meat from un-castrated male pigs and not attributable to anabolic steroid abuse, the court said, while pointing out that ADAA had 'neither called for further investigation nor explained its rejection of the material produced by the player' in support of his claim. The court said that it is mindful that anti-doping adjudication operates under a regime of strict liability but that 'does not mean that strictness in liability does not mandate callousness in process'. 'The foundational requirements of principles of natural justice cannot be sacrificed projecting administrative expediency,' the court said, while pointing out that results of the initial dope test were not disclosed to the player either in the notice of charge or in the order of ban, but was disclosed only before the ADAA. This was in violation of Section 22(8) of the Act, which mandates fair hearing and reasoning, the court said. Pointing out that the sample of his urine travelled all over, from Bengaluru to New Delhi to Rome, the court said that this is a classic illustration of breach of sample integrity as the norms of Section 21 of the National Anti-Doping Act, 2022, which would require accurate, verifiable and documented procedure of sample handling, were breached. Suffered ignominy Pointing out that once a sportsperson is found accused of doping, his past achievements become suspect, the court said that 'it is therefore necessary for the authorities, who deal with cases of suspected doping to observe punctilious exactitude in the observance of procedure and consideration of all material produced by the sportsperson suspected of doping in an enquiry or an appeal.' The petitioner, a national sportsman and a civil servant in uniform, has 'now suffered the ignominy of public censure and has seen his professional aspirations wither under the cloud of suspicion due to non-application of mind by the ADAA on the unimpeachable explanation rendered by the player/petitioner with documents of sterling quality', the court observed.

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