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| March 5, 2006 | Sunday | Safar 4, 1427 |
India omit drug cheat athletes
NAGPUR, March 4: Two athletes have been excluded from India’s Commonwealth Games squad after they failed to explain why they missed drugs tests last month, India’s athletics federation said on Saturday.
Asian Games medal-winning shot putter Navpreet Singh and sprinter Vishal Saxena are out of the team for the games in Melbourne, Australia, starting March 15, because they failed to explain to a disciplinary panel why they were not at the national training camp when officials visited from the World Anti-Doping Agency, said Lalit Bhanot, secretary of the Athletics Federation of India.
“These athletes were not allowed to compete in domestic competitions that were considered as trials to qualify for the games,” Bhanot told The Associated Press.
Bhanot said the athletes have been barred from the national training camp until they can be cleared by a disciplinary panel.
The federation initially investigated 12 athletes who could not be located for testing when officials from the anti-doping agency visited the training center in the northern city of Patiala in February.
On Thursday, the athletics federation cleared 10 of the 12 after the disciplinary panel expressed satisfaction with their explanations. Most of the exonerated athletes have made the Indian team.
The suspended athletes could be out for up to three months for leaving the camp without an excuse.
There could be other sanctions because athletes are obliged to inform administrators of their whereabouts for random and out-of-competition drug testing purposes.
On Wednesday, India’s 2002 Commonwealth Games gold medalist weightlifter Shailaja Pujari was dropped from the squad for Melbourne after testing positive for a banned substance.
One of India’s gold medal hopes at the Melbourne games, Pujari, 22, was seeking to defend her title in the 75-kilogram weight category, but failed an out-of-competiton WADA test.
Pujari had been “provisionally suspended” awaiting the result of her B-sample.—AP
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