In a candid admission at the Annual General Body Meeting here, which was thrown open to the media, AFI Secretary Lalit Bhanot said they may form a committee to look into the issue.
“We have sanctioned around 200 athletes for the CWG 2010 but around 50 have not turned up to the camp due to fear of being caught for using banned substances as we conduct dope tests frequently. “They want to train outside the camp away from the limelight. We have to come up with a committee, this is a serious issue,” he said on the first day of the two-day AGM.
“Andhra Pradesh leads in this field of producing over-age and dope athletes. We have to suspend state associations that are not strict on doping,” he added.
Bhanot has also asked chief coach Bahadur Singh to leave out the non-performing athletes.
However, Bhanot said athletes training outside the camp would still have a chance to appear in the final trials. “We have decided to conduct an open trial to be competed by all athletes, campers and non-campers. But the important thing is what we would do if those who train outside camp (who might be on drugs) beat the campers?,” asked Bhanot, who is also the Secretary General of Commonwealth Games Organising Committee. Bhanot also asked Bahadur Singh to drop non-performing athletes and those not joining the camp from national selection. “Don’t go by the names and past performance. If an athlete is not joining the camp due to injuries or intentionally, drop them.
“There are genuine cases , like some athletes busy with studies or having old parents. Otherwise we have to drop the athletes not joining camps and not performing up to the mark. We can’t show mercy,” Bhanot said.
“(Heptathlete) Sushmita Singha Chowdhury trained in London spending Rs 20 lakh from the federation but she is not coming up with good performances. Joseph Abraham (400M Hurdles) was disqualified at the Berlin World Championships. If he does not improve his technique he will have to be dropped from the national camp for the CWG,” said Bhanot.
The AGM also discussed the calendar for 2010. The AFI will conduct three Asian Grand Prixes in Chennai, Bangalore and Pune.