The doping scandal in Indian athletics turned murkier on Monday after Commonwealth and Asian Games gold medalist Ashwini Chidananda Akkunji,currently Indias most celebrated track star,tested positive for anabolic steroids. Ashwinis teammates in Indias champion 4x400 m womens relay quartet,Mandeep Kaur and Sini Jose,failed dope tests last week. The adverse findings came hours before the departure of the Indian contingent for the 19th Asian Athletics Championships in Kobe,Japan. Priyanka Panwar,who was drafted into the 4x400 squad after Mandeep and Sini returned positive results,too tested positive. Both the athletes were withdrawn from the squad and provisionally suspended. It is now doubtful whether India can field a team for the 4x400 m race. Ashwini and Priyanka tested positive for banned anabolic steroids stanozolol and methandinone during the test conducted by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) on June 27 at NIS,Patiala. Mandeep and Sini had tested positive for these same steroids. Two other top middle distance runners,Juana Murmu and Tiana Mary Thomas,also failed dope tests last week. The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) said the A samples of Ashwini and Priyanka had tested positive,and they had been provisionally suspended. They were supposed to leave tonight with the rest of the contingent for the Asian Championships but have been pulled out. The ball is now in NADAs court,which will send official notices to both. It will then be up to the athletes to ask for a B sample test, AFI director M L Dogra said. NADA director-general Rahul Bhatnagar said the string of positive results was alarming,but the agency would continue to enforce tough testing procedures. This is very alarming and we are really concerned. At NADA,it is our responsibility to keep Indian sport drugs-free,and the agency will make testing even more stringent in future. That even the best names in the business have not been spared proves that NADAs insistence on tightening rules and regulations have proved effective, Bhatnagar said. Ashwini,like Mandeep before her,blamed her food supplements for the positive test. We dont have a recovery specialist with us during camps and have no idea of what supplements we are given. Many of them are bought from outside with the coaches knowledge. I am sure the supplements are to be blamed for this positive test, she said. Ashwini seemed to have sensed her own failure coming after Mandeep failed the test. Speaking to The Indian Express on \Sunday,she had defended Mandeep: All of us are in the international pool,we wont do something stupid like this and take such a risk knowingly. We know we will get tested and get caught,so why would we do it? It was necessary to take the supplements,she had said. The training is so hard that these are part of the daily recovery cycle. We only took WADA-approved supplements,but the chances of those being contaminated are very high. It could have been ginseng which we had to procure locally this time,which we otherwise get from London,but we take so many supplements that it is difficult to know what is what even if it is from the WADA list. She had refused to blame the athletics coaches from Ukraine. They came in only in May,and they have not prescribed any new supplements, she said. Ashwini spoke to her father Chidananda Shetty as soon as the test results were made public on Monday. She told me she has done nothing wrong, Shetty told The Indian Express. She is very upset now.
