Doping: the bane of Indian athletics before CWG

Indian sportspersons want to win a medal at home in the Commonwealth Games and in chasing their dream, some of them are cutting corners and taking recourse to illegal means. As the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee is busy meeting deadlines and answering allegations of corruption and
diversion of funds, the stakeholders seem to ignore a ticking bomb that may embarrass the country at the mega event to be held from October 3-14.

The issue is of rampant doping by sportspersons that has left India humiliated at the Asian Games, Olympics and World Championships this decade.

There has been a spurt in sportspersons, including power lifters and bodybuilders, caught for doping in the country with a whopping 101 positive cases detected in the first seven months this year.

According to information provided by the Sports Ministry in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, the total number of positive cases in 2009 was 76 while it was 66 and 44 in 2008 and 2007 respectively.

Though one reason for such high detection could be the setting up of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NDA) and the increased number of tests being conducted, the high number of positive cases also indicates the rampant doping in the year of Commonwealth and Asian Games because for each positive test there could be many that have gone undetected.