Sports and Performance Enhancing Drugs (Doping)

[Atithee]

This is such a subjective and touchy topic. We should refrain from pointing fingers and name calling in the group. Let’s resume normal business. Both skeptics and believers are equally welcome. There isn’t a definitive answer to this.

[prasen9]

Talking about doping in Punjab and Haryana. Top athlete provided information about a doping ring in these two states providing "substantial assistance" to NADA in 2019 or so. I hope the ring was caught and dismantled. In a different sport, weightlifting, the federations in Punjab, Haryana, and Delhi were suspended because of rampant doping. article.

[SaniaFan]

I tried checking out that thread. But managed only a few pages. It requires time. The ones I checked, I found we were reporting doping incidents, NADA charges, suspensions etc, mainly through news reports. Some comments are inevitable. Otherwise, why should one go through such threads? Since my interest has been doping during the past 14 years (NADA's existence), especially in athletics, I have posted quite a few there. Will check again to see whether I slipped into unfounded accusations!

Why are you wasting time on going through previous messages? I think we(mostly you ) have been rightly calling out athletes who had mediocre performances and then had suddenly one great performance to qualify for some important meet and then the performance goes down as they participate in the actual meet. We should suspect such cases as they are also taking away the chance of honest performers. In this particular case I felt we pulled the trigger prematurely. And I know that it is on the basis of past experience. But still I think that this can be avoided.

[prasen9]

Agree, Mugu. Don't worry about previous posts. Keep posting your thoughts. None of us are calling for bans, etc. which we would have if we were sure. So, innocent until proven guilty but surprise performances followed by inconsistency will always be discussed, unfortunately. I doubt athletes really care. In essence, dope testing someone is not believing that person 100%. The sport has become such that we will have an element of doubt initially and with time, we move one way or the other.

[Mugundan]

Thank you Prasen and Sania Fan
Since we got into the topic, I might as well post these following items here. Perhaps moderators/admin can shift this later to the other thread on Doping.
I am not sure if I have posted these clips on this board.
The first one is at prior to Delhi state meet in Sept
Andrew Amsan, Indian Express sports correspondent posted this on X (formerly Twitter):
https://x.com/AndrewAmsan/status/170556 ... 64900?s=20
Following this, NADA made a surprise visit in the meet on the last day. The result was comical: Most of those who didn't want to face the testers ran away, in one case leaving just one athlete to run the men's 100m final. He duly ran and won!
There was an uproar following the follow-up report in Express. AIU and WADA sought reports. Still cooking!
https://indianexpress.com/article/sport ... l-8957732/

[Mugundan]

The second one is from Rohtak a year ago.
It shows the extent of doping that might be prevalent in Haryana even at the junior level. This was posted by Navneet Singh, former Hindustan Times correspondent on X (tweeted):
https://x.com/navneetsport/status/15648 ... 38144?s=20

[Mugundan]

The third is a link to an HT story in 2019 about Anjali Devi. No need to elaborate here. Even the Federation officials were surprised by her improvement! (There is no bias or prejudice here. This happened and was reported. Delhi happened and was reported. Why not doubt Delhi athlete's performance? There is no one of that calibre to talk about now. There was one woman sprinter earlier but she is under doping suspension after having clocked a 11.50 in 100m in 2021 after having moved from 12.11 at the beginning of that year ! She was 20 at that time. "What a talent", many exclaimed)
https://www.hindustantimes.com/other-sp ... 9xEXL.html

[Mugundan]

One more story on Anjali Devi. This one looks blatantly biased! Even before she had tested positive, this report called her a doper or almost one!
https://www.newsclick.in/400m-runner-an ... iaaf-world
Anjali is under provisional suspension now for the use of SARMs.
She was chosen for the Asian championships earlier this season but had to be dropped following the positive dope test. A long "hide and seek" drama seems to be coming to a close now.'
https://www.hindustantimes.com/sports/o ... 14661.html

[Kumar]

This sports forum over the years we have celebrated even the smallest achievements and have been way more tolerant towards our athletes than probably other fans.

I enjoy Mugu’s post and they have always been very informative. Sadly, it is the doping scenario today of our country. We are not no.2 in doping because forum members are casting aspersions.

The fear of waiting for the other shoe to drop whenever there is a great performance . I was glad that we did not finish at 100 medals exactly in the just concluded Asian games for the same reason as well.

[prasen9]

And before Anjali Devi, it was Hima Das, another dope cheat. In fact, I am not sure but it seems our 400m women are the worst at doping (and getting caught). Typically, more long distance runners have been caught doping but in India, it seems more of our sprinters are caught?

Maybe the kind moderators can dedicate this page with all this renewed discussions to Saffron Lenin?

[Mugundan]

Hima Das is a recent case Prasen. That too for whereabouts failures. She is currently under provisional suspension. She was expected to make a big comeback in the sprints after her 400m career was cut short by the most "mysterious back injury" Indian athletes, nay sports, has seen so far. There was always something more than meets the eye, if one could describe it that way.
Among the quarter-milers, prior to Anjali, from among the most famous cases, plus sub-52 runners, was Nirmala Sheoran. She, like most of those doubtful cases, came into the National scene in a sensational manner, got selected for Rio Olympics, won the Asian title at Bhubaneswar in 2017, got chosen for 2018 Asian Games but fared poorly at Jakarta.
She was a!) came back last year, but made her national comeback only this year with an 8th-place semifinal finish at the Bhubaneswar Inter-State in June which formed the selection trials for the Asian Games. From the days of 51.48 and 52.35 (both 2016) she could only manage 54.79s at Bhubaneswar.
A lot many people including former athletes, coaches and journalists had doubts about her ability to clock sub-52 and those doubts heightened when she avoided testers and went incommunicado.
https://www.deccanherald.com/sports/oth ... 05139.html

[Mugundan]

Dharambir Singh was another prominent Haryana athlete to test positive and thus end his Rio Olympics aspirations. He was eventually slapped with an eight-year suspension (second offence), ending his career. His suspension ends next year. Just one month short of 33 years, he is a coach now. He held the National record in 200m (20.66s in 2015) till Muhammed Anas bettered it in 2018 (20.63s), further bettered by Amlan Borgohain (20.52s) last year.
https://www.newindianexpress.com/sports ... 03992.html

[sameerph]

Hima Das is a recent case Prasen. That too for whereabouts failures. She is currently under provisional suspension. She was expected to make a big comeback in the sprints after her 400m career was cut short by the most "mysterious back injury" Indian athletes, nay sports, has seen so far. There was always something more than meets the eye, if one could describe it that way.

In 2018, Hima won gold at world juniors and gold at Asian games with an amazing time of 50.79 sec. At that time, she was thought to be the next likely Indian olympic medalist at that time. But, all that is gone now and her decline started right in 2019.

Btw, what happened to Rupal who won a medal at world juniors in 2021 ? Injury again ?

[Mugundan]

Rupal has not competed this season. Purportedly injury. Her best came at WJr (51.85 for 3rd). She closed her 400m last year with a third place at National Games, Gandhinagar (53.41s).

[prasen9]

I think it has not been reported here but Archana Suseendran, who won a 100m South Asian Games gold in 2019 and represented us in the World Athletics Championship that year has also been suspended for 18 months from June 9th of this year. article