Banned athletes cannot feign ignorance: Report

New Delhi: The Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel, which on Friday handed one-year bans to India's six top women athletes, in its findings concluded that the bottles of 'Ginseng Kinapi Pil' given by sacked coach Yuri Ogorodnik were contaminated and contained banned substances.

The three-member panel, headed by retired district judge Dinesh Dayal, found out that the four bottles of contaminated food supplement (Ginseng), procured by Ukrainian coach Ogorodnik from the Chinese market during the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, contained Methandienone and Stanozolol.

The analytical findings in the samples of the athletes were a result of Ginseng Pil given to them by Ogorodnik with a written food supplement programme starting May 10, 2011. The athletes had full faith in the coach, who had been working since 1999 and did not verify the food supplement from the manufacturer before ingesting it, the findings suggested.

Seven top Indian athletes, including Asian Games double gold-medallist Ashwini Akkunji, were handed bans for flunking dope tests earlier this year, virtually ending their chances of participating in the London Olympics next year.

The seven athletes include six quartermilers - Mandeep Kaur, Sini Jose, Mary Tiana Thomas, Priyanka Pawar, Jauna Murmu and Akkunji - and long jumper Harikrishanan Muraleedharan, who flunked dope tests for banned steroids.

While the six women athletes have been banned for a year, Muraleedharan has been slapped with a two-year ban.

The panel said that NADA's Anti-Doping policies adopt the rule of strict liability involving the presence of a prohibited substance and, under the liability principle, an athlete is responsible whenever a prohibited substance is found in sample.

The violation occurs whether or not the athlete intentionally or unintentionally used a prohibited substance or was negligent or otherwise at fault. If the positive sample came from an in-competition test, the results of that competition are automatically invalidated.

However, the athlete then has the possibility to avoid or reduce sanctions if the athlete can demonstrate that he or she was not at fault or significant fault or in certain circumstances did not intend to enhance his or her sport performance.

Keeping in mind these liability principles, the panel concluded that anti-doping rule violation has been established with respect to all these athletes.