Coach Yuri is sacked,Ashwini says NIS food supplement ran out,we took what he gave us

Besides sacking Ogorodnik,an embarrassed sports ministry today put two Indian coaches — Ramesh Nagapuri and R S Sidhu — who looked after the women’s 400 m,400 m hurdles and 4×400 m relay,under observation.

In her defence,Akkunji said: “We started taking the supplements from May 10. One supplement,in capsule form,was given by Yuri (Ginseng based) while the other three were recommended by the Indian coaches at the camp. We bought them off the shelf. This is the first time we were buying supplements off the shelf.”

Along with fellow middle distance runners Mandeep Singh,Juana Murmu,Sini Jose,Tiana Mary Thomas and Priyanka Panwar,Ashwini tested positive for either stanozolol,epimethandiol or methandienone in various combinations.

Incidentally,the late renewal of Ogorodnik’s contract had seen the Ukraine coach lose touch with the girls for about six months after the Asian Games. On his arrival in India in the first week of May,the coach had spoken about the drastic drop in the fitness standard of the girls,who were in sparkling form during the Asian and Commonwealth Games.

Ogorodnik was irked that the core of the team — Mandeep Kaur,Manjeet Kaur and Sini Jose — had hardly trained during the off-season. Precious time,he said,had been lost. “For the Commonwealth and the Asian Games we had trained for nearly 18 months. The Olympics are a completely different level of competition. If you don’t train for five months,it is very hard to think of winning an Olympic medal,” Ogorodnik had told The Indian Express in the first week of May.

Within days,as Ashwini says,the core group was on supplements that generally are known to be used to train harder,recover faster.

Defending himself,Ogorodnik said he had given only medals to the country and not steroids to athletes. Announcing he was being sacked,Sports Minister Ajay Maken had held the Ukrainian responsible for the dope flunk of six of his wards,including three of the Commonwealth and Asian Games gold-winning women relay quartet.

Indian coach R S Sidhu,who was connected to the middle-distance women’s team,seconded Akkunji’s statement. “The food supplement that the Sports Authority of India (SAI) provides on the recommendation of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) got over at the camp and that’s why the girls had to go elsewhere,” he said.

Akkunji added that they had been taking the “official” supplement,availed from Holland and the UK,since 2009 while preparing for the Commonwealth and Asian Games. The supplement that Ogorodnik suggested and the 4x400m relay squad consumed was manufactured in Korea/China,while the ones bought off the shelf belonged to a Bulgarian company. Products of these companies weren’t consumed by India’s elite athletes earlier.

“We were very happy with the supplements provided ahead of the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games but after Guangzhou the stock wasn’t replenished. So we had to buy products off the shelf,recommended by our coaches,which wasn’t the case earlier. Unless these are tested,we won’t be able to prove our innocence. We don’t have a recovery expert. Who will educate us on what these supplements contain?” Akkunji added.