Wrestlers taking booster dose during national competitions is risky, says national wrestling coach Kripa Shankar Patel

National wrestling coach Kripa Shankar Patel feels wrestlers using booster doses prior to their bouts in national wrestling competitions is a dangerous trend.

Patel was recently appointed a technical official during a wrestling competition in Panchkula, Haryana. When he went to the washroom, the national coach was shocked to witness one wrestler injecting the other with a syringe.

“I was surprised that the wrestlers weren’t ashamed of using syringe in my presence,” the Arjuna Awardee in wrestling told Sportskeeda.

A fortnight ago, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) issued a statement that “strict action will be taken against culprits using booster dose prior to their bouts during competitions”.

“I think the WFI has taken the right step to curb the menace of using syringes at the national level,” the national coach said.

Whether the rampant use of disposal syringes to inject booster dose to enhance performance is on the banned list of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the WFI office hasn’t been able to establish.

Several wrestlers do fail dope tests at the national level, but at the international level, the numbers are negligible. Last year India’s Sumit Malik failed a dope test during the World Olympics qualifier in Sofia, Bulgaria. He qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games in men’s 125kg freestyle category but was later dropped from the national team. Malik had won a medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The use of syringes by competitors during domestic competitions in disciplines like athletics, weightlifting and wrestling is an open secret. But WFI plans to take strict action against the culprits and has set up a panel to monitor the activities of the wrestlers during domestic competitions.

“During competitions held in Chandigarh, Jharkhand, Haryana, Kerala, and Delhi, large numbers of disposable syringes and vials were found in the washrooms,” the WFI said in a statement. “If any wrestler has proof of competitors using syringes, it should be reported to the federation. The name will not be disclosed.”

According to Vinod Tomar, assistant secretary of the WFI, indeed some wrestlers are using unfair means to gain advantage over others. It is not a healthy trend in an Olympic discipline that has had Olympic Games medal winners since the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

“Couple of months back during a national-level competition in Gonda, Uttar Pradesh, one of the washrooms was blocked due to rampant use of disposable syringes by the wrestlers,” Tomar revealed. “Since the drain was blocked due to syringes thrown by competitors, the incident was eye-opening for the federation.”

Tomar said that during the first Grand Prix Wrestling Tournament in senior and under-17 held in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, from November 13-15, an incident involving wrestlers using syringes came to light but there was no evidence.

“The WFI can only take action against the culprit if there is concrete evidence,” Tomar pointed out.