New Delhi:
Indian weightlifters may have won as many as 27 medals in the just concluded Commonwealth Championships, but all of that may be overshadowed by the fact that the Indian Weightlifting Federation faces the threat of a four-year ban.
Six of its weightlifters are carrying a big burden. Of the seven Indian lifters who tested positive for doping, they appeared before a four-member committee on Sunday.
"Having listened to the athletes and the federation, our committee will be giving the observations and findings to IOA who has set us up," said KP Singh Deo, Chairman of Fact Finding Commission, adding, "Today being Sunday we do not have secretarial help. In the next one week we should be able to have the draft report then the four of us will sit down and go through the report again before sending it to the president of IOA."
Commonwealth Games medalist Shailaja Pujari and Vicky Batta feature in the list of dope tainted athletes. Just two unnamed lifters have asked for their B samples to be tested.
Meanwhile, the federation has offered a rather weak defence.
"These lifters who have been found positive are not from our core group. They were not in the camp, they were new induction. They had come for test for new induction in the camp, they were all outsiders," Indian Weightlifting federation president Harbhajan Singh said.
The outsider theory certainly won't stop the world weightlifting body from making the Indian body an outsider when it congregates this December. Having got away with a fine in 2006 for doping, India will pull off a minor miracle if they manage to keep competing this time around.