Manju
Wanniarachchi |
Though the Lankan authorities expected that Manju Wanniarachchi would be found innocent during the reading of the B sample, a notice issued on the 14th confirmed that Wanniarachchi was under the influence of performance enhancing drugs during his fight for the Bantam weight gold at the Commonwealth Games.
However Manju’s lawyer Kalinga Indratissa has taken a decision to take legal action against this verdict reached by the Commonwealth authority. On an earlier occasion Indratissa has successfully fought a case for Sri Lankan sprinter Susanthika Jayasinghe when she twice found guilty for being under the influence of Nandrolone.
Indratissa’ contention is the testing was not done in a proper manner and the documentation was not properly maintained. He asks that from the time they took the urine sample of Wanniarachchi, under whose custody was it kept and complains that the documentation regarding that has not been forwarded to the local Sri Lankan boxing authorities.
However if the present circumstances persist there is a likelihood that the gold will be given to the Welsh boxer Shane McGold.
Ironically there is another school of thought which asks that if Wanniarachchi was really suffering from the wheeze as the initial reports state, and he had been under medication from a homeopathic doctor from Kurunegala, then was he fit enough to take part in an international boxing contest, and how come the local medical authorities had overseen the fact that he was under medication for the wheeze and failed to keep a proper medical track record of this?
The same school of thought also contends that if Wanniarachchi is really guilty of using performance enhancing drugs, punishing him in the proper manner would be a good deterrent for future athletes who are lured towards the short term benefits of this method of cheating. |
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