CHENNAI: The recent spate of doping cases in weightlifting will have no bearing on India’s prospects at the Tokyo Olympics, the national body’s (IWLF) secretary Sahdev Yadav said.
This daily had reported in June that four gold medallists at the National Championships in Visakhapatnam earlier this year, including 2010 Commonwealth Games gold-winner Ravi Kumar Katulu, had failed dope tests and has been suspended. It had also been reported that some of the lifters had tested positive for Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators (SARMs).
With Katulu being handed a four-year ban, a debate has stirred up over whether multiple dope tests would prompt the international body to act on India’s quota places at the Tokyo Games.
International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) rules state that a country that has less than 20 doping violations but more than ten, between 2008 and 2019, can send four lifters (two men and two women) to the Games. India currently falls in this category. This number will fall to two, should Indians have more than 20 violations.
The IWF rules say: “member federations which have recorded ten (10) or more but less than twenty (20) violations of the IWF Anti-Doping Policy (IWF ADP) between the start date of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games period and the end of the Tokyo 2020 qualification period sanctioned by IWF or Anti-Doping Organisations other than Member Federations, National Olympic Committees or National Anti-Doping Organisations shall be eligible to qualify one (1) additional male and one (1) additional female athlete, altogether a maximum of two (2) male and two (2) female athletes.”
However, Yadav said that there was no such risk as this was applicable only to lifters who fail tests at international events. “This will have no bearing on India’s weightlifting quota at Tokyo,” said Yadav.
“Our anti-doping agency only had caught him. It’s a problem when someone tests positive at international meets.”