Suspended athlete participates in Delhi meet, AFI clueless

Vinayak Padmadeo

New Delhi, June 17

In yet another incident that shows how easy it is for dope-tainted athletes to fly under the radar, a suspended athlete recently took part in a domestic event.

Sachin Poswal, who was suspended after his samples showed presence of a prohibited substance or its metabolites or markers, took part in the Delhi State Summer Athletics Meet. He took part in the men’s 1500m, finishing fourth.

Poswal had also entered to take part in the 3000m race in the Indian Grand Prix 3 that was held in Bengaluru last week. Interestingly, Poswal was to represent Uttar Pradesh even though he had been competing from Delhi previously.

“We were amazed as to how he managed to change his domicile from Delhi to Uttar Pradesh this easily. His coaches have a lot of explaining to do,” said a source who is aware of the case.

Although, Poswal did not take part in the Grand Prix, for him to be allowed to enter for the Bengaluru event and to participate in the Delhi meet does raise eyebrows about how the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) vets all the entries.

The Tribune had earlier reported that cross country runners Hemraj Gujjar and Anjali Kumari were issued provisional suspensions on March 7 and 8, respectively, but were still allowed to take part in the World Cross Country Race in Belgrade on March 30.

An embarrassed AFI has now constituted a three-member committee composed of IPS officer Sagarpreet Hooda, lawyer Parth Goswami and chief coach P Radha Krishnan Nair to probe the lapses. It is understood that the committee already had a meeting last week to discuss Hemraj and Anjali’s cases. Poswal has been called for a deposition later this week.

NADA gets a list of suspects ahead of inter-state meet

There will be special interest from the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) at the Inter-State Athletics Championships scheduled to be held in Panchkula on June 27-28. The NADA has been provided with a list of athletes who had deliberately missed the Indian Grand Prix-3. It is suspected that they stayed away from the Bengaluru meet for fear of getting caught. With the inter-state being the last meet where athletes can earn Paris Olympics quotas, all the athletes are expected to participate. “We have shared a list with the NADA of athletes we think deliberately did not compete in Bengaluru,” the source said.