Hindustan Times (Jalandhar)

Lifting under a cloud again as top names test positive

- Navneet Singh sportsdesk@hindustant­imes.com

WE HAVE A REGULAR WEEDING-OUT PROCESS. THERE WERE TWO LIFTERS WHO WERE BETTER THAN HARKIRAT. HENCE, SHE WAS ASKED TO QUIT VIJAY SHARMA, chief coach

NEW DELHI: India’s preparatio­ns for three major internatio­nal events, including the Commonweal­th Weightlift­ing Championsh­ip to be held at Pune in October, have suffered a setback as three top women lifters tested positive during random out-of-competitio­n testing conducted in the first week of June at NIS, Patiala.

The Indian contingent will also compete in the Asian Championsh­ips in September and World Championsh­ip in November, which is the qualificat­ion event for the 2016 Rio Games.

The Indian Weightlift­ing Federation (IWF), in order to avoid negative publicity before the Pune event, is claiming that the lifters quit the national camp due to unsatisfac­tory performanc­e and not because of failing dope tests. FAILED DOPE TEST Harkirat Kaur, a third-year student from Jalandhar, was among those who failed the dope test. She had joined the national camp in April. On June 4, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) conducted random tests and Harkirat, along with Manpreet Kaur (Punjab) and Geeta from (Manipur), failed dope tests. But 10 days later, the IWF conducted in-house trials and told Harkirat, Manpreet and Geeta that their performanc­e was not encouragin­g and they should quit the camp.

In recent times, a large number of lifters have failed dope tests in college and school-level competitio­ns. In the 2014 inter-varsity lifting meet, at least eight women lifters were caught. But the IWF has found an innovative way to keep dope cheats under wraps — by weeding them out as nonperform­ers.

When asked the reason for so many athletes failing dope tests despite stringent rules in the national camp, chief coach Vijay Sharma said he wasn’t aware of any doping issues. “Lifters have been asked to quit the camp due unsatisfac­tory performanc­e. That’s all I know,” he told HT.

Giving the example of Harkirat, who had won bronze in the 58kg category during last year’s senior national meet, Sharma said, “We have a regular weeding-out process. There were two lifters who were better than Harkirat. Hence, she was asked to quit.”

Harkirat said she was doing well but had to quit due to the positive test. Her ‘A’ and ‘B’ urine samples tested positive for testostero­ne and she was provisiona­lly suspending pending a hearing. Since 2015, under the new WADA anti-doping violation rules, if proved guilty, all three face a fouryear suspension.

Harkirat had been winning gold at the inter-varsity level for the last two seasons and also won bronze in the senior nationals. It helped her get a berth in the national camp. She was hoping to make a debut at the internatio­nal level but her dreams crashed. She, however, blamed food supplement­s for the setback. “I had been taking supplement­s for the past three years but never failed a drug test.”

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