New Delhi:
Indian weightlifters' participation in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in jeopardy, the sport's governing body meets on Wednesday to decide whether to ban the country for a spate of dope flunks last month.
Six lifters returned positive for banned substances in out-of-competition tests conducted by WADA in September in Pune, which ultimately led to the en masse resignation of the executive committee of the national body on Monday.
Under International Weightlifting Federation rules, if four or more lifters test positive in a calendar year, the national body can be banned for a maximum of four years.
The resignations, under pressure from the sports minister and IOA, has somewhat brightened the chances of a lenient view from the executive board of the International Weightlifting Federation in its meeting in Goyang City, Korea.
One of the international body's demands, in its letter to the IOA after the dope spat, was to change the whole set up of the national federation and that has been done.
International Weightlifting Federation chief Dr Tamas Ajan is said to have close relations with IOA officials.
What the Indian officials are banking on is that considering India is hosting the Commonwealth Games for the first time, Ajan can influence the other members of the executive board tomorrow to take a lenient view.
A one-year ban may give a chance to the country to participate in the Commonwealth Games though it does not solve all the problems.
"In case of a one-year ban India may be able to take part in the CWG. But there is still a problem. The date of ban will no doubt start from September 10 when WADA took the samples and the ban will be over by September 10 next year while the CWG starts on October 3," a source in the know of things said.
"But the date of entry of the weightlifters will be over one month before the event (Commonwealth Games). These problem of few days can be exempted by the international body or the Commonwealth Games Federation," he added.
The best case scenario for the country, however, would be only a fine of at least $50,000 but that would set a bad precedent for the other countries.
The general secretary of the outgoing national body B R Gulati will present the IWF's case before the International Weightlifting Federation in Goyang City, where the World Championships starts on November 20.
Before leaving India, he said he would take the plea that the six lifters were not in the registered pool of lifters nor in any camps and thus the national body does not have control over them.
"India had participated in four international competitions in the past one year without any dope problems (junior world championships in Romania, Asian junior, Asian Senior Championships in Kazakhstan and Commonwealth Championships in Malaysia)," he said.