Pratima Kumari

New Delhi: Holding that the case of two women weightlifters testing positive for drugs in Olympics is only a ?tip of the iceberg,? an official inquiry committee has recommended ?deterrent? punishment and sanctions for players as well as managers, doctors and technicians.

In the 35-page report, the committee, headed by K.P. Singh Deo, made some far-reaching recommendations which included setting up an effective monitoring system by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), with responsibility and accountability for national, continental and global events.

?The two positive cases for doping of our female weightlifters is an unfortunate incident... It seems it is the tip of the iceberg,? said the inquiry report.

Lifters Pratima Kumari and Sanamacha Chanu were banned for life for testing positive for banned substances during the Athens Olympics. National coach Pal Singh Sandhu has also been banned for life while foreign expert Leonid Taranenko of Belarus has been de-recognised by the IOA.

The committee said during a visit to the sample collecting centre of Sports Authority of India (SAI) that the members came across ?a case of attempted manipulation of urine sample which was prevented by an alert, agile and vigilant technical person of the laboratory.?

The commission said the open injection vials that were submitted before it by Chanu were found positive for a diuretic (furosemide).

Stating that it was not ?physically and practically? possible for a person to take I/V Drip, which Chanu admitted she took, without the assistance of a professionally-trained person, the report favoured testing of sealed new bottles of this medicine.

Karnam Malleswari, who had also come under a cloud for failing to complete her event in the Olympics, was on the wheelchair when the commission members visited her in her Yamuna Nagar residence in September.

Interestingly, the report observed that in the 63kg weight category while Pratima tested positive, Malleswari could not lift.

?As a consequence, the silver and bronze medal went to two lifters who happened to be from Belarus where our lifters were undergoing training.?

?IOA may play a role with government and Planning Commission in formation of medical, insurance cover and scheme for relief, recovery, rehabilitation of sportspersons in their field of occupational hazard,? the report said. (PTI)