Junior national coach under NADA scanner
The chief coach of the junior national athletics team, Ramesh Nagapuri, is in the dock after he allegedly helped two athletes avoid getting tested by dope collection officers (DCOs) sent by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA).
Subsequently, he and both the athletes were issued notices by NADA. The incident happened a little over a month ago at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in Hyderabad.
The DCOs had come to the Hyderabad centre to collect samples from at least four athletes as per their target testing programme. Ramesh allegedly helped two avoid giving samples. As a further consequence of this serious charge, Ramesh did not accompany the Indian contingent to the Asian Youth Athletics Championship in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has denied that Ramesh was penalised due to the NADA notice and stated that it was the prerogative of the national federation to send or not send an official with the travelling contingent.
When quizzed whether Ramesh was sacked from his position as the chief coach of the junior team, Adille Sumariwalla, former AFI president and now a spokesperson, said, “No one has been sacked,” before adding that “there are also personal reasons.”
Ramesh too said he stayed back due to personal reasons. “I did not travel with the team because of personal reasons,” Ramesh told The Tribune on Friday.
Pressed on the NADA notice, Ramesh, the Dronacharya award-winning coach of Dutee Chand, said, “I cannot talk about it.”
Meanwhile, SAI is closely monitoring this matter and will take further action once NADA takes a final call.
“SAI has no intimation from NADA regarding this matter yet. SAI is awaiting the report of the inquiry being conducted by NADA in this case and will act as per the findings of the report,” SAI said in the statement.
It will be interesting to see what action NADA will take against Ramesh. Till today only two coaches have been banned for various doping offences. Mickey Menezes, an athletics coach, was banned for four years after he was found guilty for injecting banned substances into an athlete’s body. Last year, a judo coach, Naresh Arya, was banned for six years for stopping NADA officers from collecting samples.
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