Athletics: Indian athletes’ bans changed for Olympics

Ashwini Akkunji and Sini Jose, members of relay quartets that won gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, were among six athletes banned from the time of their provisional suspensions last July.

However, the panel ruled that four of them – Akkunji, Jose, Priyanka Panwar and Tiana Mary Thomas – deserved leniency as they did not take banned steroids intentionally.

Since the bans have to be for at least one year owing to World Anti-Doping Agency rules, the start date was changed to when the urine samples were collected last June. The deadline for sending Olympic entries is 3 July.

The four athletes have appealed against the bans to the Indian anti-doping agency, blaming a coach who allegedly gave them food supplements but WADA has demanded that their bans be increased to two years as it feels the athletes themselves should be held responsible for the presence of banned substances in their bodies.

The other two 400-metre runners who were also banned were Mandeep Kaur and Jauna Murmu.

They all tested positive for one or more of three banned steroids, Methandienone, epimethandiol and stanozolol.

Meanwhile, Spanish police have detained ten people alleged to be part of an international doping network involving professional cycling and athletics.

“A criminal network” that provided performance-enhancing drugs to athletes who tested positive at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 Spanish Vuelta, among other competitions, was dismantled according to a statement by Catalan regional police Mossos d’Esquadra, who were working alongside the national force.

“The established infrastructure in Spain is characterized by an organization that had many contacts in the world of elite sport,” the statement read, adding that the police had not discounted more arrests in an investigation nicknamed “Operation Skype”.

The Mossos d’Esquadra said the ringleader was “Dr Alberto BN” – reported to be former Liberty Seguros cycling team doctor Alberto Beltran Nino.

Beltran, who lives in Bahrain, also previously worked cycling team Xacobeo-Galicia and has been in jail since trying to board a flight from Madrid to Colombia on March 5. Cesar Perez, the former trainer of world steeplechase champion Marta Dominguez, who was arrested in December 2010’s Operation Galgo, was also reported to have been detained.

Beltran’s international network included contacts in Morocco and Colombia in an operation based out of Barcelona. Among the drugs distributed were blood booster CERA, a form of EPO, and steroids. The Xacobeo-Galicia rider David Garcia tested positive for EPO at the 2010 Vuelta a Espana stage race.

In 2009, Portuguese cyclist Nuno Ribeiro accused Beltran of injecting him with performance-enhancing drugs in the wake of his positive test for CERA at the Tour of Portugal, which is also mentioned by the Mossos d’Esquadra.

The Mossos d’Esquadra said police began the investigation in the summer of 2011, monitoring a store in Barcelona that “presumably was related to the positive EPO of a Catalan athlete at the 2012 Spanish Championship.”

Middle distance runner Jose Luis Blanco appears to have aided the investigation after being banned for two years following a positive test at those same national championships.

“Given the proximity of the 2012 London Olympics, the group resolved to disband when the ringleader was in Spain,” the statement said.