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| Satheesha during the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2005 |
New Delhi: Weightlifter Satheesha Rai has done it again.
The ace lifter in the 85-kg category, who was stripped off his two gold medals in the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002, has once again been found guilty of using a banned drug during the last National Games held in Guwahati.
Being a second time offender as his ‘B’ sample test has been confirmed ‘positive’ for banned substances by a WADA-accredited laboratory in Bangkok, Rai is likely to be banned for life.
Secretary of the Weightlifting Federation of India (WFI) Balbir Bhatia, however, said he was not sure whether the lifter would be banned for life.
“Everything would be done after consulting the international federation,” Bhatia said. “We don’t want to do something that might drag us to a legal battle. We will put up the matter in front of our executive committee and seek their advice.”
Bhatia also informed that three women lifters, who were banned for doping offences in 2004, are awaiting their re-instalment at the international level.
While Sanamachau Chanu has completed his re-instalment testing, Pratima Kumari and Sunaina Anand are yet to complete the testing at an accredited laboratory.