World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has revealed their list of top doping offenders in 2014. India, with 96 violations recorded, are third on the list behind leaders Russia (148) and Italy (123).
Despite having a relatively weaker presence in the sporting arena, Indian athletes have managed to rank among the highest in the Anti-Doping Rule Violations chart of 2014. Officials from the concerned fields have attributed the said outcome to the deplorable practices prevalent at the national age-group, university, and governmental institution level competitions.
WADA’s 2013 report had seen 91 violations from India, who were still placed 3rd on the blacklist. However, despite the relatively higher count of instances, there has been a 13% drop in the total number of failed tests.
Out of the 96 offences in 2014, 79 were from in-competition tests and 13 elsewhere. Four of the violations (2 each from athletics and wrestling) were non-analytical i.e the banned substances were not detected in the athletes’ samples but in their possession or they failed to appear for a test, etc.
Athletics, powerlifting, and weightlifting dominated the scene with a whopping 29, 23 and 22 violations respectively. In athletics, India stand 2nd, behind only to the disgraced Russian contingent with 39 cases recorded against them.
Wrestling, judo, taekwondo, baseball and wushu had 3 violations each, followed by 2 cases recorded in boxing.
Solitary occurrences in canoe/kayaking, soft-tennis and shooting added further taint to the Athletics Federation of India(AFI) in the list released barely three months before the Summer Olympics flag off in Rio de Janeiro.
Matters worsen as Russia await Rio verdict
Other nations to be named among the top ten dishonourables are Belgium(91), France(91), Turkey(73), Australia(49), China(49), Brazil(46) and South Korea(43).
With their participation in the 2016 Olympics still hanging in the balance courtesy doping revelations across the country, Russia topping the list once again could fetch them an additional penalty from the heads at the International Association of Athletics Federations(IAAF) ahead of Rio.
