Police unit to dig deep into doping incidents
View(s):At the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in India, Manju Wanniarachchi beat Wales’ Sean McGoldrick in the bantamweight division to secure the gold medal in boxing, a record after 72 years.
But the euphoria lasted less than two weeks when the boxer was found guilty of a doping offence. Wanniarachchi admitted to taking medication from a practitioner in Kurunegala but wouldn’t admit to consuming a prohibited substance to enhance performance.
A few months after the doping accusation, Wanniarachchi retired from the sport. He had once dreamed of winning an Olympic medal at London 2012. No one, however, looked into the role of the doctor, team administrators, or the Amateur Boxing Association who might have lured him to commit the crime, knowingly or unknowingly. Doping requires substantial cooperation from numerous parties.
With sprinter Himasha Eshan now facing a possible ban for his second doping rule violation, the debate surrounding drugs in sport has been revived. Is it the athlete–Himasha, in this case–who should pay the price? Or does the onus lie on higher powers?
The latest incident has jerked awake government officials who are working on setting up an investigation unit to make it possible to bring other parties–coaches, administrators, even pharmaceutical companies–before courts of law.
The existing law, the Convention Against Doping in Sports Act No 33 of 2013, delegates necessary powers to reel in the culprits but a lack of resources for investigations has long crippled the process.
“In most cases, the athletes are innocent as they have been induced by a third party to use these banned substances,” said Panduka Keerthinanda, Legal Consultant to Sri Lanka Anti-Doping Agency. “What we have done is to punish the athlete and let the culprits off. So they keep doing the same, destroying not only the careers of these athletes, but putting their lives in danger.”
The envisaged Police Anti-Doping Inquiry Unit will be empowered to carry out investigations and bring the culprits to book. Keerthinanda believes this is the only way to curb a growing tendency among sportsmen and women to use performance-enhancing drugs.
“Our main intention is to prevent athletes from using performance-enhancing drugs,” he explained. “Some of these cause significant health issues, including heart problems, cancer and depression. So punishing athletes under the WADA code is not sufficient. We need to dig deeper and penalise those who introduce these substances to the athletes.”
The impact of drug abuse is such that some athletes even face sex changes. East German shot putter Heidi Krieger was among many athletes who were fed steroids by the Communist state. Testosterone affected her. She changed sex and now lives as a man named Andreas Krieger.
“Not only do they inject drugs now, they also inject hormones to athletes,” Keerthinanda said. “The female athletes are being injected with male hormones to improve their muscular fitness levels so that they can do more during training. Males are being given both male and female hormones. This is a very bad situation and there is evidence that it’s happening here.”
“I don’t think the players are aware of this, nor the parents. This is why it’s important to educate the athlete and the parents of new trends in doping and take stern action against those who lure the athletes” he added.
Under law, a person who is guilty of aiding and abating doping can be punished with imprisonment of a term not exceeding two years and also be liable to a fine of up to
Rs. 3 million.