New Delhi: Four days after handing life ban
to three lifters for their second dope offences, Indian
Weightlifting Federation today said five lifters tested
positive for banned drugs during Senior National Championships
in Udaipur in February.
IWF Secretary Sahadev Yadav told PTI that Punjab unit has
been banned for two years as two out of the five lifters who
tested positive belong to the state. Under IWF rules, a state
unit faces ban for two years if at least its two lifters test
positive.
"Gurpreet Singh (men's +105kg) and Paramjit Kaur (women's
69kg) are from Punjab and we have handed a two-year ban on
Punjab as two of their lifters tested positive," Yadav said.
The other three lifters are Manjinder Singh (men's 62kg;
Chandigarh), Bhagat Singh (men's 94kg; Madhya Pradesh) and
Pradeep Sharma (men's 77kg; Police).
"All five of them have been handed provisional two-year
suspension. We had taken a large number of urine samples in
the Senior Nationals as we wanted to have a crackdown on
doping menace," said Yadav.
"Each lifter has been fined Rs 50,000 each but the fine
will be paid by the state units concerned and not by the
individual lifters as has been decided by the executive board
in Udaipur. The state unit will not be allowed to take part in
any IWF competition till the fines are given," he added.
IWF had last week handed life ban on Vicky Batta (56kg),
G Damodaran (105kg) and Rajesh Kumar Singh (94kg) for their
second dope offences.
Batta, a 2006 Commonwealth Games silver medallist,
returned positive during the 2007 National Games in Guwahati
and he was among the six lifters who was caught for doping in
out-of-competition tests by WADA in Pune last September.
Damodaran tested positive in the Inter-Services Meet in
Jamnagar in November last year. He first flunked dope test in
the 2006 Senior National Championships in Visakhapatnam.
Rajesh Kumar was also one of the six lifters who flunked
dope tests in the WADA out-of-competition tests last September
which led to IWF being handed a fine of USD 5 lakh by the
international body. He first tested positive in the 2006
Inter-Services Meet in Jamnagar.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, March 31, 2010, 18:31