Russia, Turkey, India top doping sanctions list

Russia, Turkey and India led the ‘dopers’ brigade in the world in 2013.

In its first ever anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs) report, released on June 16, the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) has given details of the adverse analytical findings (AAFs) in each sport, country-wise, and also worked out the ADRVs. An ADRV would mean a sanction for a doping violation.

Russia, recently in the news related to doping issues, with a German television channel expose revealing alleged official involvement in doping in athletics, topped the charts with 225 ADRVs, followed by Turkey with 188 and India with 95 in figures released by WADA for 2013.

The overall percentages when compared with the number of samples tested, the efforts of the WADA and the International Federations in combating doping in sports and the funds being pumped into the exercise, remained on the lower side.

A total of 207, 513 samples were tested in 2013, as per information gathered by WADA, with 2540 of them (1.22 %) turning up adverse analytical findings. Of these 1687 (0.81%) ended in analytical ADRVs. Another 266 ADRVs came from non-analytical routes (‘whereabouts’ failures, evasion, trafficking etc), adding up to a total of 1953 ADRVs.

Poor out-of-competition testing success

The lack of adequate out-of-competition testing world-wide showed up in the figures. In a total of 1687 analytical ADRVs, only 366 came from out-of-competition testing, just 21.69 per cent. WADA-accredited laboratories tested a total of 200824 urine samples in 2013, of which 80,433 were out-of-competition samples. They also tested 6689 blood samples.

It has generally been believed that the best period to catch the dopers would be during their training phase but either because of lack of planning or because of lack of effort or both, out-of-competition testing success has largely remained modest in the anti-doping sphere.

The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) of India which tested 4274 samples in 2013 managed to sanction just six athletes from its out-of-competition testing while getting 85 punished by hearing panels from in-competition testing. In its total of 95 ADRVs there were four non-analytical ones for India. The Indian NADA had 93 AAFs in total with 90 of them ending up in ADRVs, an impressive percentage of cases brought to sanction by NADA.

The Indian NADO is yet to begin ‘whereabouts’ information-based testing, but a beginning has been made to gather information in athletics recently. Once such testing starts the out-of-competing testing in India will naturally gain additional teeth.

Athletics contributes 30 to Indian tally

From the 95 ADRVs in India, athletics contributed 30, the maximum, with weightlifting occupying the second slot with 19. Wrestling had nine and bodybuilding and powerlifting eight each. Surprisingly, kabaddi, rather famous for its large percentage of ‘positive’ cases through the circle style World Cup conducted in Punjab, turned in only two ADRVs in 2013.

Russia’s 225 ADRVs mainly came from athletics (42), powerlifting (35), wrestling (32), weightlifting (26), cycling (19) and aquatics (14). Fifty-two of the Russians sanctioned were caught in out-of-competition testing while there were 13 non-analytical ADRVs in the Russian figure that was more than double of India’s.

Interestingly, Turkey, where athletics again occupied the top slot with 53 ADRVs, had as many as 33 non-analytical ADRVs, in its tally of 188, the highest in that category among all countries. Weightlifting contributed 48 to the Turkish account.

From among the leading nations in the Olympic sphere, USA’s 43 had 11 from out-of-competition testing while Britain’s 23 had eight from out of competition. US Anti-Doping Agency’s contribution of sanctioned athletes during this period was 61 while that of UKAD was 15, the others coming from the international federations.

Ukraine NADO did just nine tests

That a country like Ukraine which took the 14th place in medals tally at the London Olympics in 2012 with six gold, five silver and nine bronze medals could manage only nine tests through its National Anti Doping Organization which eventually led to one ADRV should lead to a review by WADA about the set-up there.

Ukraine had 26 ADRVs in all including seven non-analytical ones, of course 25 of them coming from outside agencies. In comparison, countries like Gautemala (176 tests), Macau (22), Niger (10), Costa Rica (126) and Luxembourg (224) which did not get a medal in the last Olympics carried out more dope tests by their anti-doping agencies at home.

The Mexican example

A curious example is also presented by the Mexican NADO which came up with 73 ‘positive’ cases from just 101 samples (72.27%) but ended up with only two ADRVs! Forty-nine cases are pending there! Twenty-two of the original 73 AAFs ended up without a sanction! Elsewhere, in international testing, two other Mexicans were also sanctioned.

Athletics led the table for sports, with 280, of which 45 were non-analytical ADRVs from a total of 24942 samples.  Weightlifting with 252 including four non-analytical cases, from 8533 samples, followed. Cycling (203 from 22252 samples), wrestling (101), football (86 from 28002 samples), judo (41) and boxing (40) were the other major offenders among Summer Olympic sports.

Badminton had two positive cases

Interestingly, badminton, a physically-demanding sport, had just two positive cases and one sanctioned athlete (a Belgian) from its 1264 tests. The other case ended up in a reprieve. There were 504 urine samples collected out of competition in badminton.

In comparison, tennis had 14 AAFs from 3476 samples from which eight ended up in sanctions and table tennis had 10 AAFs from 1035 samples from which seven culminated in punishments.

Squash, a non-Olympic sport, had three adverse findings from 370 samples all of which ended up in sanctions.

If you thought power sports or physically more draining events would automatically contribute more ‘positives’ compared to ‘skill’ sports, then have a look at this. Rowing turned in 17 AAFs, culminating in 10 ADRVs from 4343 samples while shooting had 18 AAFs and 11 ADRVs, with six of them being reprieved since they had valid therapeutic use exemption (TUE) documents.

Golf produced two AAFs from 483 samples with one ending up in a punishment and the other being let off as “no case to answer”, meaning it could have ended at the ‘results management’ level (excluding TUE cases). Such cases, WADA explained, included authorized route of administration for glucocorticosteroids (e.g. cortisone) and departure from international standards.

Hockey, it may be of interest to Indian fans, had two AAFs and one ADRV, while cricket had nine AAFs, ending up in five sanctions.

Cricket, by the way, is a fully Code-compliant sport recognized by WADA, contrary to the oft-assumed notion in India that it is not WADA-rule compliant. All the member units of the ICC including the Indian Board are thus deemed to be Code compliant.

(amended 18 June, 2015)

Asian Athletics Championships preview (part-2)

The Indian chances

 What are India’s chances in these championships? How well have they prepared? Let us take a look at the prominent athletes who should be figuring in India’s medal hunt in Wuhan.

(Action begins on June 3, Wednesday at 6.30 a.m. IST)

Men

Track events:  With a repeat of his 20.87s in the 200m, Dharambir Singh might have a chance to look for a medal. Indian sprinters rarely reproduce their home form in big meets abroad and thus the doubt whether the 24-year-old Haryana man can come up with his best. He was charged with an ‘evasion’ from dope testers in the Inter-State in Hyderabad in 2012 but was reprieved later.

Two-lapper Jinson Johnson, steeplechasers Jaiveer Singh and Naveen Kumar are other Indians who could be capable of getting among the minor medals on track.

There is always talk of relay teams getting medals but a lot of factors eventually decide how it goes. Japan, which holds the top three times in Asia in the current sprint relay lists has not even been entered in this event!

Jumps:

Two Indian long jumpers, Kumaravel Premkumar and Ankit Sharma have crossed 8.00m this year. Eight other Asians including five Chinese have also achieved that distinction. Li Jinzhe and the No. 2 in the list, another Chinese, Wang Jianan, who set an Asian junior record in Shanghai in May are not in the fray. The Indians do have medal chances if they jump at their best.

Premkumar, who has been training in the US, had taken the silver at home last time, while Sharma’s selection got into quite a bit of controversy after the federation omitted him despite his success in the selection meet.

Throws:

This is where India is hoping to strike rich. With two leaders in Asia in discus and shot put, naturally the Indian camp is looking forward to gold medal performances though, surprisingly,  Vikas Gowda was not mentioned as a gold medal contender among the Indians when the team left.

Gowda should be a hot bet to defend his gold medal in discus, earned in the absence of Asian record holder Ehsan Hadadi of Iran in Pune. Gowda is in the best form of his life, having notched up eight of the top 10 Asian marks this season in the run-up to the Wuhan championships with a best of 65.75m.

Recently, the 31-year-old Mysorean finished third at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, ahead of Hadadi  for only the second time in 19 meetings. The Iranian has been a late starter this season and is capable of pulling off a big one as he did in the last Asian Games.

Gowda should also be looking to nail the Olympic qualification mark of 66.0m. So too Hadadi and a few others.

The performance of Arjun, India’s second entry who did not meet the standard but was chosen obviously with an eye on the future would be keenly followed.  The Delhi boy had won the silver in the Youth Olympics in 2010, but had not been in the news much till he claimed the silver in the National Games this year and won the title in the Federation Cup with a PB of 58.51m.

Inderjeet in great form

Inderjeet Singh crossing 20 metres in shot put thrice this year has stirred the imagination of the athletics buffs in the country. His 20.65 in the Fed Cup by which he made the Olympic cut has helped him gain international recognition. He crossed 20 metres during the trials for the World University Games also after the Fed Cup, having first breached the barrier in the National Games in Thiruvananthapuram.

Inderjeet will have to contend with Chinese Taipei’s Chang Ming-Huang and the three Chinese, Wang Guangfu, Liu Yang and Tian Zizhong, the first two having PBs of plus-20 metres.  If the Indian can come close to what he has achieved at home he will probably walk away with the gold. Below 20.0m there would be a scramble for medals.

Davinder inconsistent

Javelin thrower Davinder Singh has been inconsistent. Chosen for the last Commonwealth Games, he disappointed with a 70.56m in the qualification round in Glasgow. He was back at his best in the Fed Cup this year with a PB of 79.65 that fetched him a berth in the Indian team again.

The No 1 javelin thrower this season, India’s Rajender Singh Dalvir (82.23m for National record in National Games) could not find a place in the Indian team since he fared poorly in the Fed Cup. Below him there are two Chinese Taipei throwers, Cheng Chao-Tsun and Huang Shih-Feng, both having crossed 81 metres.  Both are at Wuhan.

Davinder has his task cut out since the field will also be having Japanese Yukifumi Murakami, former Asian Games champion and World championship bronze medallist, apart from Uzbek Ivan Zaytsev , the defending champion, who was also the bronze medallist in the last Asian Games. Davinder would have redeemed himself if he can win a medal in such company.

Women:

Track events:

M. R. Povamma (PB 51.73s, SB 53.41s) has been projected as a major gold medal contender for India on the track. The Karnataka one-lap runner is not in the best of form though her 53.41s in Mangaluru could be attributed to her rustiness in a season-opener. She had skipped the National Games to concentrate on her training.
The late withdrawal of Bahraini of Nigerian origin, Femi Adekoya, who won the 400m and 400m hurdles at the last Asian Games, has left Poovamma, bronze medallist at Incheon Asiad, with a better chance than she would have had otherwise.

Asami Chiba of Japan, who won the silver in the 2010 Asian Games, Anastasiya Kudinova and Yulia Rakhmanova of Kazakhstan, Yang Huizhen of China and Sri Lankan Chandrika Subhashini who beat Poovamma in the Glasgow CWG could be the other contenders in the women’s 400m, scheduled to have the preliminaries on the opening day.

Best chance for Luka to become champion

Though she has not been rated too high in the Indian team’s calculations, this could be the best chance for Tintu Luka to win the Asian title. Missing from the 800 field would be Asian Games champion Margarita Mukasheva of Kazakhstan and defending champion Chinese Wang Chunyu. 
Her finishing ability still in doubt, Luka can yet produce a winning race at this level, especially in the absence of Mukasheva, by running in front. She clocked 2:01.86 while winning the National Games title in February this year but was sluggish at the finish in the Fed Cup. She should start the favourite in Wuhan. Chinese Zhao Jing, who finished behind Luka in Incheon last year, is in the fray and could be expected to pose stiff challenge before the home crowd.

Until she develops a finishing ‘kick’ from 150m out, or can shift to an extra gear on the straight, Luka would be better off, at least for the time being, to lead from the front, no matter that her struggle invariably through the last 100 metres often gives the impression that she was "setting the pace” for others to be beaten at the finish.

Lalita Babar skipped Fed Cup but was included in the team for the 3000m steeplechase on her past reputation. Ruth Chebet, the Bahraini of Kenyan origin, and China’s Li Zhenzhu who finished ahead of Babar in the 2014 Asian Games will be there in Wuhan to vie for the medals. Babar may have to yet settle for a minor medal.

Relay chances

The women’s 4x400m team is without the ‘Olympic hopefuls’ comprising the dope-tainted athletes plus some others. They had the freedom to skip the Federation Cup and still get selected to the Government’s ambitious TOP Scheme for Olympic medal hopes.

The rest would be led by Poovamma and will have Luka to lend more experience. P. T. Usha’s other trainee Jisna Mathew, who took the silver in the inaugural Asian Youth championships in the 400m, in a national junior record of 53.84s, and possibly hurdler Anu Raghavan may complete the line-up.

In a second trial at Patiala, the team minus Luka and Mathew, clocked 3:35 plus to earn selection. They will need to do a lot better than that to ward off Japan (3:32.79 this season), China and Kazakhstan in Wuhan and retain India’s hold on the event.

Jumps:

After a disappointing year in 2014, Mayookha Johny is back. Though yet to regain her form, the Kerala woman, who won the Asian title in 2011 in Kobe, Japan, can look at least for a medal in the company of a clutch of Chinese and Filipino veteran Marestella Torres who looks to be in good form this season with a best of 6.53m. Chinese Zhou Xiaoxue leads with 6.55m. Mayooka did 6.34m in the Fed Cup to clinch her place in the team.

Throws:

Navjeet Kaur Dhillon, just out of the junior ranks, might find it extremely difficult to break the Chinese monopoly in discus. With three of them allowed in the field, as a host nation’s privilege, China looks set to sweep the medals. Su Xinyue with 64.27m leads the current Asian lists. Tan Jian and Lu Xiaoxin, the other two Chinese, both are 61-metre-plus throwers. Dhillon’s best this season is 52.70. She has a PB of 56.36m. The experience should help Dhillon who is being groomed for the future. Both Seema Antil, the 2014 Asian Games champion, and Krishna Poonia, the national record holder, were not available for competitions at the beginning of this season.

Asian Games bronze medallist in javelin, Annu Rani was given a second trial before she qualified for the Asian championships. Her trial effort of 58.66m may project her as a medal contender, though a minor one. Suman Devi, who won the Fed Cup with 54.07m is the second Indian entry. The top two Chinese have gone beyond 61 metres this season.

-(updated 03 June, 2015)

Asian Athletics Championships preview part-1

Indian athletes would be looking forward to an improved performance from their 2013 effort at home as they get down to another edition of the Asian Athletics Championships in Wuhan, China, from June 3 to 7.

After an encouraging Olympic year in 2012, Indian athletics has had two below-par years and it will require quite some effort in Wuhan for it to start looking up again in its attempt to aim for an impossible-looking medal in the Rio Olympic Games next year. Everyone talks about it without perhaps realizing how tough it has become to earn a medal for an Indian even at the Asian level.

There had been a steady decline in India’s performance in the biennial championships and even at home in Pune last time,  the country could only manage the fifth place in the medals tally with a haul of three gold, five silver and nine bronze medals.

Compare this with the four individual gold medals that P. T. Usha won in Jakrata in the 1985 edition of the championships which fetched the country 21 medals in all, 10 of them gold, and one gets an idea about the sliding standards.

There is great optimism this time, as expressed by Deputy Chief Coach Radhakrishnan Nair  on the eve of the team’s departure from New Delhi that India would return from the Chinese city with at least its gold medal tally doubled from last time.

A Chinese domain

Asian athletics is China’s domain. Of late there might have been a slight erosion of its dominance in the Asian Championships but that could have been more because of not fielding full strength teams rather than a fall in standards. True, the Chinese strength in women’s track events is no longer so pronounced as it used to be in the 1990s. The same goes for the men’s throws.

China will be without Su Bingtian, the first Asian of non-African descent to run the 100m below 10 seconds (at Eugene on May 30), Olympic bronze medal winning woman shot putter Gong Lijiao who is No. 2 in the world lists this season with 20.23m, long jumper Li Jinzhe, Asian Games champion, and world No. 5 this season with 8.26m, and Asian Games champion and Asian record holder jalevin thrower Zhao Qinggang, among their prominent stars in this edition of the championships.

The junior sprinting sensation from Japan, Yoshihide Kiryu who ran a wind-assisted 9.87 in Austin, Texas, this season and who holds a PB of 10.01s will also be missing from the line-up. He was expected to figure in the Asian Games last year but an injury robbed him of that chance.

Also missing would be Kazakhstan’s woman triple jumper Olga Rypakova, Olympic champion in 2012, who holds the top two marks this season in Asia at 14.48 and 14.38. Kazakhstan also would be without its Asian record holder and defending Asian champion in decathlon, Dmitry Karpov.

Despite the absence of these leading stars, the championships should provide good contests, especially with the World Championships in Beijing just over two months away and athletes likely to be looking for entry standards for the Worlds as well as Rio Olympics. Qualification for Olympics could be of greater significance for many of the lesser stars including those from India.

Mutaz Barshim ready to soar further

Leading the star parade from among 12 male and 11 female Asian Games champions would be the high jumping sensation, Mutaz Essa Barshim. The world-leading 24-year-old Qatari has cleared 2.41m outdoors and indoors this year. He is the defending Asian Games champion and World Indoor champion. He holds the Asian record at 2.43m. Younger brother Muamer Essa Barshim is a 2.28m high jumper who has cleared 2.23m this season.

Chinese Zhang Guowei, who cleared a PB of 2.38 to be No. 2 in the world lists this season (up to May 31, 2015) and to clinch the second place behind Mutaz Barshim in the Eugene Diamond League meeting, is the silver medallist from the last Asian Games. A terrific battle is on the cards in high jump.

Sixteen of the Asian champions from the Pune edition, eight men and as many women, would be defending their titles in Wuhan.

China, at home last time in Guangzhou in 2009, claimed 47 medals including 18 gold. In 2011 in Kobe, Japan forged ahead for the first time since 1983 with a collection 32 medals, 11 of them gold, to China’s 27 with 10 gold medals. China was back at the top at Pune in 2013 with 27 medals, 16 of them gold, with Bahrain taking second with five gold and Japan third with four.

(Read about India’s prospects in part-2)

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