Ogorodnik asks for retesting of dope-tainted athletes

Patiala: Embroiled in doping controversy, sacked athletics coach Yuri Ogorodnik on Saturday defended himself and said that he never provided the banned anabolic steroids to Indian athletes.

Ogorodnik was terminated from his post, after eight athletes, who had trained under him tested positive for taking banned anabolic steroids within a span of a week. Addressing a news conference in Patiala, Ogorodnik said that he has been a professional coach of the Indian athletic squad for a long time and providing any athlete with banned substance was out of question. The Ukrainian national said that the girls should be retested to check for any possibility of earlier dope test being wrong. “There are two tests of A and B, sometimes A is positive and sometimes B is not positive, many times they are same too. But one should do another doping test, should check it,” he said. Ogorodnik admitted that he gave food supplements to the girls, but added that he had no clue of it being contaminated.Apart from Ogorodnik, the Sports Authority of India suspended other coaches for allegedly providing some of the athletes with banned performance-boosting steroids. Eight athletes had recently failed in the doping test that was undertaken. Jolted by the scandal, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) had threatened to raid athletes’ rooms to catch prospective drugs cheats.The latest doping scandal follows the 122 positive cases reported in an 11-month period starting from May 2010. ANI