No lessons learnt? UPAA yet to take steps to check dope
It seems the Uttar Pradesh Athletics Association (UPAA) has not learnt lessons from the recent doping cases. Its top three athletes, including Priyanka Panwar, country’s high profile 400m runner, who had a gold medal at the 2013 Inchon Asian Games in 4x400m relay, could not board the flight to Rio de Janeiro for Olympics last month after she failed dope test, whereas two youngsters Yugant Shekhar and Kaushal Kishore Singh too were found using drugs.
The two-day 50th UP State Annual ‘B’ Athletics Championship which begins here on Saturday at the Guru Govind Singh Sports College will not have any checking mechanism to stop dope menace.
“Let us see if National AntiDoping Agency (NADA) sends its team for a dope test. We have informed the Athletics Federation of India about the event. We don’t have any mechanism to check doping at the state championships,” UPAA’s secretary general PK Srivastava told HTon Friday.
“We don’t have any technical support to check doping. However, we let every athlete know about dope. We give a brief lecture to them at the assembly just before the meet begins,” said Srivastava.
“It is true that doping should be stopped at the grass root level but we are unable to do so,” he said.
He said there was no availability of a lab at the state level to check dope in urine samples of athletes. No sporting body could do anything to stop the dope menace. “Under-14 and under16 events are the right events to create a terror of dope among athletes,” he added.
Secretary of the Lucknow District Athletics Association B Ram Varun claimed that in the age group events, organisers verify only age and nothing else. “No checking of dope use at this level helps many athletes win medals at the state level. Many of them get group D jobs in railways, banks, police, corporations etc. through sports quota,” he said.
“If we have a mechanism from the very start of an athlete’s activities right from district level championships, we can ensure dope-free events,” he said. Secretary, UP Olympic Association, Anandeshwar Pandey also advocated for setting up of a sports laboratory in the state. “I have been writing to the government in this regard since long but nothing has been done so far,” he said.
Meanwhile, the two-day championship is expected to see 500 athletes, including 175 girls in under-14 and under-16 age group events. Allahabad, Barabanki and Meerut athletes in the boys section and athletes from hosts Lucknow, Allahabad and Barabanki in the girls category would start as favourites.
THE TWO-DAY 50TH UP STATE ANNUAL ‘B’ ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIP WHICH BEGINS HERE ON SATURDAY WILL NOT HAVE ANY CHECKING MECHANISM TO STOP DOPE MENACE