Some athletes camping overseas are bringing back performance-enhancing drugs for distribution: Anju tells AFI general body

Athletics Federation of India (AFI) senior vice-president Anju Bobby George on Sunday dropped a bombshell alleging that few of the country's athletes are bringing back performance enhancing drugs from overseas, which are being distributed among some of their colleagues. Speaking at the two-day Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the AFI here, Anju, the country's lone World Championships medallist, said many of the banned drugs being consumed, have been brought by athletes caught for doping originated from abroad.

"Many banned drugs being taken by the athletes caught for doping are not available in India, they come from abroad," Anju, also an acclaimed coach, has reportedly briefed the general body. "It is not only the coaches supplying banned drugs to young athletes but many athletes travelling abroad for training, procure the (performance enhancing) drugs and distribute them to other athletes.

We also have to stop this," said Anju, who won a long jump bronze at the 2003 Paris World Championships. AFI President Adille Sumariwalla, on his part, warned the athletes that they will be put under more intense dope testing than before by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) and urged them to stop the business of taking drugs and then claiming innocence later on.

Sumariwalla said the NADA has strengthened its dope testing capabilities by recruiting more personnel to crack down on the drug cheats. "I had recently met with NADA people and they are going to test more samples.

They have recruited 115 dope testing officers and they are going to district and state level meets besides the national level events," Sumariwalla said while emphasising the zero tolerance on doping on the part of AFI. "We have urged the NADA to conduct dope