`The dots in dope case don`t seem to connect`

Mumbai: Former national sprint champion and Olympian Adille Sumariwalla on Friday expressed surprise and scepticism at the dope shame that has enveloped Indian athletics with six athletes flunking the test.

"I am surprised and frankly feel all the dots don`t seem to meet. Tell me, why would a jumper, a thrower and runners take the same cocktail of drugs and that too something like Stanozolol which is passe and for which Ben Johnson was caught in the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games," said Sumariwalla. "The jumper and thrower are also not trained by the Ukrainian coach. I am speaking to you as an Olympian and not in my capacity as an Athletics Federation of India official," he said. Sumariwalla is the working president of AFI. Six track and field athletes, including two Commonwealth and Asian Games gold medallists, flunked dope tests for anabolic steroids in just two days. Mandeep Kaur and Sini Jose, both members of the Indian women`s 4x400m relay quartet that won gold in the Commonwealth and Asian Games last year; quarter-milers Jauna Murmu and Tiana Mary Thomas; long jumper Hari Krishnan and shot putter Sonia were caught for doping.All the six athletes have been provisionally suspended till their disciplinary hearings are completed and quantum of punishments decided. Sumariwalla also wondered why, when far superior ways like blood doping and EPO were available, the athletes would go for other types of drugs; and felt medicines or diet supplements sold off the shelf seemed to be responsible for the mess the athletes find themselves in. "The stuff they bought off the shelf must have been contaminated," said the former 100m national champion and Moscow Olympian, while conceding he was not defending their actions. PTI