Mystery over powerlifter’s death lets drug genie out of the bottle
LUCKNOW : The book “Don’t Pay To Get Killed” by fitness and sports medicine specialist Dr Saranjeet Singh tells fitness freaks and sports buffs why they should say no to steroids, but the menace of power enhancing drugs has continued in India.
The alleged mysterious death of a powerlifter of the government-run KD Singh ‘Babu’ Stadium in Lucknow on Monday night seems to have let the genie of drug use out of the bottle once again.
Weightlifting coach Arvind Kushwaha said the powerlifter went through the basics on the first day of training on Monday evening and, after a while, started complaining of “some uneasiness”. The coach took the athlete to a private hospital and then to a government hospital before handing him over to his parents.
“Only late in the evening, I came to know about the death of the powerlifter,” said Kushwaha, who refused to accept that the weightlifters at his centre were using drugs for power enhancement. “It’s a complete no to such people at the weightlifting hall as we have a good lot of young lifters, including girls,” he said.
District Weightlifting Association secretary Ranjit Yadav didn’t rule out the possibility of excessive drug use behind the death of the powerlifter. “There is a possibility of excessive drug (use) behind the mysterious death of the athlete as powerlifting isn’t an Olympic sport and its athletes hardly care about being caught in dope tests,” he said.
“Use of power enhancing drugs by powerlifters and body builders in gymnasiums across the country is quite common,” said Yadav, vice-president of the UP Weightlifting Association.
On the use of drugs by weightlifters, Yadav said not at the district level, but at the state level event, the sports body gets drug tests done if somebody makes an official complaint against an athlete.
“Every athlete is required to submit an affidavit regarding the non-use of drugs before his or her participation in the state championship and pay for the test, if it is done,” he said.
UP Olympic Association secretary Anandeshwar Pandey said the use of power enhancing drugs in sport was quite common. “Have seen several such cases in the sport and I believe that use of drugs is inspired to athletes by their coaches. You will get to see used syringes and wrappers of the medicines lying in the dustbins the sporting venues across the state,” he said, adding, “There is no mechanism to check this menace at the trials for jobs in various government departments of the country.”
Dr Saranjeet Singh said that he gets to see many such athletes at his clinic every day. “I regularly get to see such athletes, suffering from various problems, including impotency, due to the use of power enhancing drugs. They come to me only to get rid of this and most of such patients are fitness freaks, spending big money at gyms.”
“These drugs are easily available in the open market. Different drug cartels are behind this business and have seen many fitness freaks pay Rs 50,000 to 1 lakh every month to get their body shaped through the use of medicines at various gyms across Lucknow.”
He said that only way to stop such drug use was to make people aware of the side- effects.
Use of power enhancing drugs by powerlifters and body builders in gymnasiums across the country is quite common RANJIT YADAV, DWA secy
“A big effort to stop this nonsense is going on at the world level through WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) and NADA (National Anti-Doping Agency) in India, but the need of the hour is awareness about its side-effects,” he said.