Sports and Performance Enhancing Drugs (Doping)

[Mugundan]

Kamalpreet Kaur accepts a three-year sanction for her steroid offence. Surprisingly, the supplements testing process and communications from the AIU took their own time, dragging the "admission" process beyond six months.
https://sportstar.thehindu.com/athletic ... 000516.ece

[prasen9]

India is holding a WADA Symposium on doping.

[prasen9]

NFSU will be testing all sports supplements before they are allowed to be sold in India. This is a good development and initiative by the Sports Ministry imho.

[Mugundan]

These people keep talking about testing supplements, regulating them etc. It is yet to work.
I didn't realize this one is five years old.
https://sportstar.thehindu.com/other-sp ... 685204.ece
The latest one also involves FSSAI as per Sports Minister's speech at WADA symposium. We will have to see how it works. In fact, my own feeling is it is not advisable to have a Govt agency certifying the supplements. If an athlete is caught later with a supplements contamination and he or she blames the certified supplements, there could be problems. Both the US and Britain have links to "safe supplements" on their NADO websites, but they do say they are notgoing to be eventually responsible. That is the correct way, too, IMHO.

[prasen9]

New tests WADA said some new tests are coming but EPO and doping not going away.

[Mugundan]

WADA is starting a new passport from 2023, to keep track of the human growth hormone. There apparently is no new test or methods of detection.
https://www.newindianexpress.com/sport/ ... 07827.html
One is not sure how far the existing passports had been successful in curbing doping. The large bulk of doping detection is through testing of samples only. Apparently, the passports give an indication about the changes that may lead to a more targeted testing of an athlete.

[sameerph]

Another big athlete gets caught in the dope net-

India’s fastest woman Dutee Chand fails dope test

[prasen9]

Add Commonwealth Champion Sanjita Chanu Subtract Shivpal Singh Shivpal. It seems NADA accepted his explanation and reduced his ban and he is eligible since 10th Jan of this year. Now, don't know if WADA will step in or appeal and he will still be banned or not.

Also, I do not remember if someone reported it last year. Dipa Karmakar was suspended for two years for not showing up for mandatory testing off-competition.

[Mugundan]

AIU (World Athletics) would probably appeal Shivpal's case to CAS. It is most likely then they would win, either with CAS reinstating the four-year ban or by reducing it by a few months at the most.
The case is unlikely to stand scrutiny at a higher level.

[prasen9]

We had a premonition of this. Now we are the most caught nation on a per capita basis after South Africa.

Absolute numbers, we are #2 after Russia. article

The Shivpal case will be appealed by AIU. Here is the basis on which Shivpal's appeal succeeded.

[Mugundan]

We had a premonition of this. Now we are the most caught nation on a per capita basis after South Africa.

Absolute numbers, we are #2 after Russia. article

The Shivpal case will be appealed by AIU. Here is the basis on which Shivpal's appeal succeeded.

AIU and WADA review all cases decided at the national level if they have an appeal. They first review whether there are grounds to appeal and then determine whether they should appeal. Sometime they appeal separately to CAS and on other occasions only one of them would appeal. Only when they are more or less certain that they would win or at least their appeal would be partially upheld would they venture to appeal.
In this case, I understand AIU is looking into options of appeal by studying the evidence presented before the Indian panels.
Insidethegames has simply gathered info from various Indian reports plus got an answer from AIU that yes, they would appeal after review.
Here is a better-explained article about the Shivpal case that pinpoints the areas where the panel faltered.
https://circleofsport.com/adap-raises-e ... -one-year/
The main point for me would be the athlete went ahead and consumed a supplement about which he had no clue though he seemed to have taken a "similar supplement" in the past. Also of relevance could be his coach bought it and not him. Plus his coach filed a police complaint against the supplier seven months after the police had raided the shop, unearthed material ostensibly used for fake supplements and arrested the owners. Why an FIR after police had unearthed the racket?

[Mugundan]

As for India being number two etc, by Insidethegames, these statistics are for the "athletes currently undergoing suspensions" and they are not overall numbers or numbers related to 2022. In 2022, I think Kenya would top the table.
India was No. 3 in the anti-doping rule violations in 2019. The 2020 list is expected any day now. India should occupy one of the top positions yet again. It is good I think we are topping lists, since that would show dopers are getting caught and are being punished. It is better to test more and catch more and sanction more rather than keep sample numbers low, catch only lower-rung athletes and not push hard for sanctions.

[Mugundan]

I am also trying to figure out whether Shivpal's explanations have any merit.
These are the dates:
Sample collection: 26/09/2021
'A' sample report: 15/10/2021
News report about raid and arrests: 07/10/2021
Coach filed FIR: 07/05/2022
The news appeared possibly on one website.
Arguments in favour at the appeal stage:
1. Had written down name of the supplement "Prime Testo Booster" on the doping control form
2. That one tested positive when he provided the supplement to the lab for testing which was granted by the hearing panel
3. He had filed a police complaint that led to arrests etc
4. He deserves leniency/reduction on grounds of "substantial assistance" through police complaint
Arguments against:
1. He apparently wrote down "Prime Testo Booster" on his doping control form. Going by disciplinary panel order he got "Muscle Light Prime Testo Booster" tested at the NDTL. (Are they two different substances? Neither is available on a Google search! From where did he check about the safety and genuineness of the supplement?)
2. The purchase was done by the coach, not him
3. He should have been careful in consuming something which, by all logic, was being used by him for the first time. Especially when his coach got it and that too from an obscure supplier from Muzaffarnagar.
4. Is there a purchase date?
5. His coach filed an FIR seven months after raids and arrests of the shop owners
6. How can then this be considered as "substantial assistance"?
7. Even if it was considered as "substantial assistance", an appeal panel had no business to reduce the sanction under this clause since it was the sole prerogative of NADA! (There is no quantum of reduction mentioned in the order but all the same it mentions reduction under "substantial assistance"")

[prasen9]

Taekwondo player Kashish Malik banned for doping. Sanjita Chanu's doping ban upheld. And, AFI announced a whistleblower policy Aishwarya Babu and M.V. Jilna banned too. Bans

Renu avoided a doping ban because coach somehow wanted to get back at her and botched sample collection! Who knows!

Don't know if the whistleblower policy is a good one or not and whether people will really come forward and hand in the guilty without fear of retribution. Mugu may know better on this one.

[Mugundan]

Don't know if the whistleblower policy is a good one or not and whether people will really come forward and hand in the guilty without fear of retribution. Mugu may know better on this one.

Details of the whistleblower policy have not been announced yet. Who will come forward? And will it mean AFI would take action? Under what rules? NADA bringing forward any action against any support staff or another athlete or group of athletes is quite okay. Such actions would need solid evidence.
The funny part is, without any help from a prospective "whistleblower" we know who are doping in Indian athletics! At least one can point out a dozen or two dozen candidates for vigorous testing and around 90% would be caught.
It is quite likely, AFI would also know!