The Commonwealth Games Secretariat on Friday rejected an appeal by the Lankan authorities to postpone the testing of the B Sample in Manju Wanniarachchi’s case at the 19th Commonwealth Games. The Lankan authorities had cited that the official verdict of the initial Testing was only scheduled for Saturday and they would have very little time to make a proper study of the report.
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| Manju Wanniarachchi who returned to the Island to a rousing welcome seen with his parents. Pic by Ranjith Perera |
National Olympic Committee chief Hemasiri Fernando said, “Yes, we did ask for a postponement of the second test but the Commonwealth authorities have rejected our request.”
As scheduled the team of officials to witness same will take wing to New Delhi tomorrow. The team consists of Dr. Lal Ekanayake of the Sports Ministry Medical Unit, Lawyer Kalinga Indratissa and Boxing Federation Secretary Col. Hemantha Weerasinghe and Manju himself. On Friday another expert on the subject Professor Chandrika Wijeratne, who is attached to the Colombo University, was added to the tour party.According to Hemasiri Fernando he had advised Manju not to go into the second urine test but to ask for a leniency in punishment. Hemasiri added, “The urine sample ‘B’ also comes from the original, where the same sample was divided into two in the presence of the athlete, and hypothetically one cannot expect a different result in this scenario. Now we are all convinced that this has been an unintentional occurrence we have to talk to the governing body and get a lenient sentence.” Generally drug related offences carry a life ban downwards.
The examination will take place on Tuesday (November 2) at the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) Examination Unit situated in New Delhi.
Commenting on the fate of the maligned boxer, the head of the Sports Ministry Medical Unit (SMMU) Dr. Geethanjana Mendis said, “The testing of the ‘B’ sample will be done at 10 a.m. on Tuesday and we are hoping to release the results of it the same day – the moment we receive it.”
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| QV Nandrolone Decca, a form of nandrolone used by athletes. |
Several years ago even the Olympic Silver Medalist Susanthika Jayasinghe, after initially winning the Bronze at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, had to undergo the same process of testing but she came out unscathed. However medal winning athletes like Jani Chathurangi, Premila Priyadarshani, a woman weight lifter and a member of a swimming relay team have earlier been banned for testing positive for drugs.
Manju was the only Sri Lankan to win Gold for Sri Lanka out of the 91 athletes who represented the country. He won his medal on October 13 this year.
However on October 21, the head of the Olympic Committee in Sri Lanka, Hemasiri Fernando, was told by Olympic sources that Manju had failed the drugs test as his urine sample was tainted with the banned substance Nandrolone.
This is an anabolic steroid that may be present naturally in the human body, albeit in minute quantitative in less than 0.4 mg/nl. Nandrolone is directly detectable in hair or indirectly detectable in urine by testing for the presence of 19/norandrosterone metabolite. The International Olympic Committee has set a limit of 2.0 ìg/L of 19 (in medical terms) norandrosterone in urine as the upper limit, beyond which an athlete is suspected of doping.
Later on at a meeting held on Friday (October 22) the National Olympic Committee took the Commonwealth Gold medal from Manju Wanniarachchi and kept it in their custody till such time as the case was finalized.
There is an International Olympic Committee (IOC) ruling that any athlete suspected of having used a banned substance is banned from giving statements to the press.
Manju had made a statement to the Kurunegala Police that he had been taking medicine from Dr. Ananda Muddannayake, a Homeopathy Doctor. This Doctor had stated to the Kurunegala Police that he had been treating several leading athletes in the past and this was the first time that such an allegation had been made against him.
The Amateur Boxing Association in turn had made a statement that the drug that Manju has been accused of taking cannot be given orally but has to be administered through an injection.
It was also brought to light that Manju had been suffering from a wheeze but under normal circumstances he should have informed the Sports Ministry Medical Unit about his treatment and in return the SMMU would have informed the Commonwealth Games Committee, but this had not happened.
In the wake of this all athletes for the Asian Games, to be held in Guangzhou, China next month, are currently being scrutinized by their respective bodies for any drugs that they are taking for various ailments.
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