Doping cases will not affect India”s performance in CWG: Bhanot

Lalit Bhanot, the Secretary General of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (CGOC), has said that doping incidents will not affect India”s performance in the upcoming mega-event, after four Indian wrestlers were ruled out of the 2010 Games, failing to pass the doping test.

“It”s not a good thing what has happened, but as far as in terms of performance if you speak about the medals, I don”t think it will bring any impact on the medal winning. The sportspersons are themselves responsible and not the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) or any other governing federation,” told Bhanot to reporters on Friday.

“The Sports Authority of India or any other federation cannot be with them for 24 hours, and to monitor of what they eat, when they move out, is difficult. Therefore, the person who is found guilty is himself responsible,” he added.

Meanwhile, Commonwealth Games Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi
reassured that they are all out to ensure that the games would be dope free and the athletes found guilty would be suspended.

“We want the Commonwealth Games to be dope free and we are going to be very strict about it. Those who are found guilty will be suspended,” said Kalmadi.

Four wrestlers, who were part of the Commonwealth Games squad, have tested positive and the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) provisionally suspended them on Thursday.

This came barely a week after the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) bailed out the weightlifters by giving an interest-free loan to the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF) to pay off fines due to doping sanctions.

The wrestlers tested positive for a banned substance called Methylhexanamine. The tests were part of routine random testing by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) in the run-up to the Games.

The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) suspended freestyle wrestlers Sumit (74 kg), Mausam Khatri (96 kg), Gursharanpreet Kaur (72 kg) and Tomar (120 kg), who were to participate in the Games.

National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) collected their samples during the team selection trials held on August 8.

The wrestlers were undergoing training at camps in Sonepat and Patiala.

The 2010 Commonwealth Games, which kicks off on October 3 is India”s biggest sporting event since the 1982 Asian Games.

India is expecting about two million tourists in New Delhi for the Games, as well as about 10,000 athletes from 71 teams representing 54 Commonwealth member states.