Members of the weightlifting team of India have not learned their lesson from previous competitions where they were banned because of positive tests for performance enhancing drugs. The fiasco in 2004 and 2006 may happen again because of the latest report that three additional weightlifters from their national team failed a drug test conducted by the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA). Last month, 2 lifters failed an out-of-competition-test.

The series of tests conducted by WADA is in connection with the Commonwealth Championship games which will start on Sunday. The failed test result was confirmed by the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) secretary Baldev Gulati to Reuters. He confirmed that 2 male lifters and 1 female were added to the list of athletes found to be having anabolic steroids on their system. They were weightlifters Harbhajan Singh, Rajesh Kumar and Bijaya Devi. The 2002 Commonwealth Games women’s 75kg gold medalist Shailaja Pujari and Vicky Batta for 56kg category also failed the test last month. Pujari failed in the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) test while Batta returned positive results in a World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) test.

The lifters will definitely face sanctions from their sports organization and will be banned from participating in the Commonwealth Games. But the worst penalty is the suspension that will be given to the national body according to the report. The secretary general of the weightlifting federation was surprised on the result saying that they are conducting periodic test to detect if athletes are taking steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. “I’m dumbfounded. All of them have shown some sort of anabolic steroid,” said Gulati. “This shows something has happened in the last 20 days, just before the Commonwealth championships, (lifters) trying something, if this is correct,” when he told Reuters about the incident.

Athletes who failed a steroid test can contest the result and ask for their B sample to be tested. This will validate if there were errors in the previous result. The lifters have no other choice but to adopt this option. According to Gulati, the lifters have already denied any wrongdoing and did not conform to the test result.

With the increasing numbers of athletes failing a steroid test, there could be a possibility of systematic doping in the national team. “What is causing a bit of suspicion is all of them have tested for the same type of anabolic steroid, the same quantum. There is something that doesn’t look very natural,” Gulati said. According to Reuters, the national coach for weightlifting, Magad Salama, resigned last year because of doping of senior lifters.

In a previous interview with The Telegraph India, Gulati said that weightlifting is a power sport and lifters need supplements but they have to be mindful of the banned substances. “We try to educate them about the banned substances and have always told them to consult a specialist before consuming supplements,” he added. “It’s the greed of a few lifters which sullies the image of not just the federation but the entire country.”

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