Press Trust of India
New Delhi, August 4: The sensational media reports of widespread blood doping in world athletics has also pointed the finger of suspicion at the Indian athletes, though experts in the country are not very clear about how it could have happened. The reports were carried by a German TV channel and the ‘Sunday Times’ in London.
The ‘Sunday Times’ report cited India among countries under suspicion of blood doping, and stated that five per cent of the 12,000 blood samples which returned ‘abnormal blood tests’ were from Indians.
One Indian expert said that blood doping in India could be possible as erythropoietin (EPO) is available in India and athletes might have used it, if at all the reports are to be true.
“I don’t know whether these reports about Indian athletes are true or not. But at the same time, you cannot rule out blood doping in India as EPO is available in the market,” Sports Medicine expert PSM Chandran said Tuesday.
“Blood doping can be in two ways. Earlier, it was done through transfusion of one’s own blood. An athlete withdraws his own blood, stores it at freeze point and re-infuses it before competition,” pointed out Chandran.
The latest method is the easier one that is by injecting banned substance erythropoietin. EPO is available in India and so you can’t rule out blood doping in India,” he added.
The officials of Athletics Federation of India (AFI) and National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) did not respond even after repeated attempts.
An official in the know of this blood testing said that so far NADA has not found adverse blood testing reports. He said if at all Indians are to be caught for blood doping, it could be from samples collected by IAAF or WADA at the top world events like World Championships and Olympic Games.
