CHENNAI: Finally, after seven months the hearing of Long jumper Aishwarya B is over. The triple jumper has been banned for four years. The Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel of National Anti-Doping Agency has "hereby sanctioned her with an ineligibility of four (04) years as per Article 10.2.1 of the NADA ADR (anti-doping rule), 2021. The period of ineligibility shall commence from the date of provisional suspension i.e, 18.07.2022."
The samples were taken on June 13-14 during the inter-state athletics championships in Chennai. The national record she created in the triple jump (14.14m) bettering Mayookha Johny's 14.11m (in Kolkata, 2011) now stands cancelled.
However, there are a few things that stand out in the judgement posted on the NADA website. Interestingly, the athlete had said in her defence that she did not take anything to enhance her performance. And that the medicine she ingested was to manage pain. It was because of an "injury in the past when her shoulder had dislocated while lifting weights in the gym in February 2021. She took the proper treatment and then recovered from this injury. In the run-up to the competition, she pushed herself too much which led her to the painful discomfort in the same place."
"Fearing her injury might resurface if she continues her training with the same vigour, she discussed this issue with her colleague named Jagdish who is also an athlete. As she was just a few days away from the competition and she was confident of winning the gold medal like the previous year, she did not want to skip this competition. So, Jagdish suggested her to take Ostarine tablet claiming that it's completely safe and it would help her to get rid of pain and muscle healing. Since Jagdish is an active sportsperson, she believed his claim and took Ostarine tablets on the advice of her colleague Jagdish being completely ignorant that it is banned by WADA."
Interestingly, Ostarine is not used for pain management. It is a selective androgenic receptor modulator (SARM) and is used to build and strengthen muscle. It was developed to treat elderly patients suffering from muscle and nerve damage. It is illegal to buy anywhere in the world as it has still not been approved for human consumption.
According to Ashok Ahuja, former sports medicine head at NIS Patiala and an expert in anti-doping, this is a drug that is not used for pain management. "It has no role in the management of sports injury. It is used to strengthen muscle only," he told this daily. Considered a new age drug, its abuse in India too seems to be rising. "It is not a food supplement but can be found in supplements," he said.
Even the disciplinary panel, said, "The assertion that the athlete had pain and discomfort cannot be used as a mere excuse to ingest an “unknown substance” into one's body, no matter how much pain or discomfort the Athlete was going through..."
Interestingly, the hearing panel (ADDP) committed an inadvertent error not serving interim order. "Further, the panel during the hearing dated 12.01.2023 noticed that due to an inadvertent error on the part of NADA, the Interim Order dated 03.01.2023 could not be served upon the Athlete or her Counsel."
The athlete also argued that because she was "not much educated" she was nervous during the hearing and did not mention the correct hospital name where she underwent treatment. "...This is the reason when she was asked by ADDP about her place of treatment in English, she became nervous and mentioned the name of Apollo hospital by mistake. It is submitted that the athlete has been undergoing intense mental trauma since ADRV has been reported in her case. So, she was frightened when she appeared before the ADDP," read the judgement.
The athlete has 21 days to appeal against the ADDP order.