Five lifters test positive during Udaipur nationals

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