Doping and overage issues pulling India back

Schools and universities are meant to be the foundation of a successful sports system, but it isn’t functioning properly in India.

Take the case of Delhi discus thrower Monica Joon Godara. She dominated agegroup national level meets in the 2000s. She also was the All India Inter University champion for five years in a row, from 2005 to 2009. Her Delhi university record of 45.96m set in 2005 still stands.

The promising thrower, however, quit athletics in 2009. “It’s discouraging for a clean athlete to continue. I quit because I found the environment unhealthy. Many athletes achieve more than 60m in trials or competition, but don’t repeat it. How can you compete with them?”

GIVING UP

Despite devoting 10 years, she couldn’t make an impact at senior level. “It was very frustrating. I couldn’t outclass some of the throwers despite training hard. Discreetly so many athletes were involved. It’s shocking how things happen under the nose of officials.”

Like Monica, there are many who quit sports in their prime. Her coach SS Rai says many promising junior athletes refuse to take extra aid (read performance enhancing drugs), and that’s why they aren’t successful at senior level. “Each individual athlete has limitation, but beyond a certain level it’s difficult to progress without the support of pills,” he adds.

According to Rai, the menace of doping is deep-rooted in India. “It’s hard for clean athletes win medals at the state level,” he says.

The situation is grim. This season more than half-a-dozen medalists at the junior nationals failed dope tests.

Prominent Punjab shot putter Manpreet Kaur failed the dope test during the Hyderabad domestic meet in June, which was a Rio qualification event.

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has increased number of dope tests at junior level, but it hasn’t helped bring down the rampant use of banned substances by school and college athletes, a federation official said.

BIG NUMBERS

The figures on anti-doping violations in the country, furnished by the sports ministry in the Rajya Sabha five months before the Rio Games, showed the number of cheats were on the rise. In 2015, as many as 120 athletes tested positive, up from 95 the previous year. In 2012, an Olympic year, the number was 119. As per the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) violation list released in 2014, India ranked third, behind Russia and Turkey. Going by that list, the country’s track and field athletes topped the list of dope offenders, followed by weightlifters.

Despite rules being tightened in January 2015 that makes even first-time offenders liable for four-year bans, it hasn’t discouraged the culprits.

In January, eight athletes failed dope tests, with a handful of them weightlifters who were caught at the All India Inter-University meet. Besides lifting, track and field has a poor doping record. In 2015, at least seven top lifters preparing for Rio failed dope tests. It left the national side depleted.

THE OTHER SCOURGE

Overage is another issue that plagues Indian sports. Last year, more than 100 athletes were barred from the junior state track and field meet after being found overage. “Overage is worse than doping. Sometimes we are helpless as we don’t have equipment or funds to tackle the issue,” said Raj Kumar, Haryana athletics association secretary.

Since 2009, when he took over, Raj Kumar has been fighting the issue. “I have compiled the data of athletes, but still some athletes give the slip,” he said. Kumar feels that overaged athletes have hurt the progress of sports in the country. Promising athletes find it challenging to continue playing. It’s a big problem not just in Haryana, but all over the country, he said.

A couple of years ago, a Haryana runner in the under-16 boys’ section clocked 49sec in the 400m. But he couldn’t graduate to the senior level. Kumar says this is because 25-year-olds compete at the U-18 or U-16 level.

Overage issue isn’t exclusive to track and field. Last year, the Table Tennis Federation of India barred 50 overage players for a year for age fudging, sending a stern message to other federations.

Monica says federations should probe doping and overage issues thoroughly. “Otherwise it would ruin sports in the country. Our administrators, who are only active during major events like the Olympics, should also have a vision for the development of sports,” she added.

DESPITE TIGHTENING OF RULES IN JANUARY 2015 THAT MAKE EVEN FIRST-TIME OFFENDERS LIABLE FOR FOUR-YEAR BANS, CULPRITS HAVE NOT BEEN DISCOURAGED