Mattoo dismisses charges of doping by Indians

Sydney: Chef de Mission of Indian contingent Ashok Kumar Mattoo on Thursday lashed out at a section of the press for the purported leaks and reports, which mentioned that doping is rampant among the athletes of his country.

Mattoo's ire was directed against those who alleged that India did not have any modern facilities to check doping and so its athletes took the drugs without any fear.

Mattoo said, ''We take stringent action against those found doping, but just because there are no international level facilities in India, every athlete can not be accused of taking drugs.''

Repeated attempts were being made to relate the death of 32-year old discus thrower Ajit Bhaduria to pinn he said and added that without any investigation certain elements are out to malign Indian athletes.

Mattoo said India fully supports International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision of adopting very tough and stringent measures to check doping and drug abuse, we have nothing to hide, we support IOC in its bid to clean the sport.

He said what distressed him was about the impression being created that Indian officials do not take action against athletes who take drugs. ''This is a false propaganda.''

We are as strict as any other country which vouches for the healthy and fair conduct of sports. However Mattoo's strong rebuttal was slightly blunted when one of the senior most IOC members in India Ashwani Kumar said that because of lack of international level checking facilities, some athletesmay be taking drugs.

Ashwani Kumar had alleged that doping and drugs abuse were rampant amongst the athletes all over the world. ''Most of the officials know which athlete takes the dope but they just look the other way,'' he added.

Ashwani Kumar was of the view that India should immediately set up an international standard facilities to check doping and drug abuse among its athletes.

Interestingly, though India stands no chance in athletics here, two of their throwers, shot putter Shakti Singh and woman discus thrower Neelam J Singh may be asked to undergo doping tests, according to the sources here.

UNI