NADA conducts raid at SAI`s Bangalore centre

National Anti-Doping Agency conducted raids at Sports Authority of India`s centre at Bangalore and took urine samples from the campers there for testing.

Bangalore: A team of National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) conducted raids at Sports Authority of India`s centre in Bangalore and took urine samples from the campers for testing in the wake of the doping scandal that has rocked Indian athletics recently.

The four-member team, headed by NADA Project Officer Dr V Jayaraman and which also included a lady doctor, reached the SAI centre at 8 am in the morning and searched the hostel rooms of the campers and coaches for banned substances and also took urine sample on a random basis. The team checked 51 rooms in the hostels -- 30 women and 21 men -- and collected samples of food supplements and other medicines from four rooms, which were sealed, NADA director general Rahul Bhatnagar said in a statement. Twenty urine samples of weightlifters and swimmers were also taken on a random basis and will be sent to National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) for testing, Bhatnagar added. Jayaraman said that the NADA team searched rooms of 90 athletes, including those of two coaches. "We conducted searches on 90 athletes, including some Indian hockey team players. Random urine samples were also taken and the results will be known later," he said. The raid was part of the countrywide crackdown on doping in sports following the recent doping scandal involving eight Indian track and field athletes. NADA had last week conducted surprise raids at the rooms of campers and coaches at National Institute of Sports, Patiala and took urine samples from the trainees there for testing.NADA also said that such raids will be conducted in other SAI Centres in the coming days. "NADA will continue its drive against doping in sports in the country and surprise checks will be carried out at other centres where athletes are training," said Bhatnagar. The Bangalore SAI Centre has trainees from various disciplines, including track and field athletes, women weightlifters and hockey players. The NADA chief, meanwhile, informed that they will conduct a workshop here tomorrow to make the athletes aware about the consequences of doping. "A detail workshop on Anti Doping will be held at SAI centre Bangalore tomorrow, which will be addressed, amongst others, by Dr C D Tripati, Head of Pharmacology, Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi and also chairman, Therapeutic Use Exemption Committee of NADA. "In this workshop all aspect of Doping and the Anti-Doping Rules of NADA and WADA will be informed to the sportspersons, athletes, coaches and support staffs," Bhatnagar said. NADA`s crackdown comes in the backdrop of eight track and field athletes testing positive for anabolic steroids, in what is considered as one of the worst doping scandals to have hit Indian athletics. Mandeep Kaur, Sini Jose and Ashwini Akkunji, who were part of the 4x400m relay quartet that won gold in the Commonwealth and Asian Games last year, were the star athletes to have tested positive for banned substances along with three other quartermilers Jauna Murmu, Tiana Mary Thomas and Priyanka Panwar. All the offenders were trained at NIS, Patiala. Of the other two dope-tainted athletes, long jumper Hari Krishnan Muralidharan trained at Pune while Sonia was not in any national camp. PTI