D'Souza does not contest findings

Former India hockey goalkeeper Adrian D' Souza, who tested positive for tetrahydrocarbinol (THC), a metabolite of marijuana in the recent World Series Hockey, appeared in front of the National Anti-Doping Agency Disciplinary panel on Thursday.

D’Souza, who was accompanied by the Indian Hockey Federation general-secretary Ashok Mathur, did not contest the analytical finding of the laboratory. He, however, gave a written statement to the panel to the effect that he had attended a party in Mumbai where he had smoked a cigarette.

He was non-committal about whether the cigarette was laced with marijuana. The party, he said, was about three weeks before the match between Mumbai Marines, which he led, and Sher-e-Punjab, in Jalandhar on March 21 last when his sample was taken.

The three-member panel comprising retired judge Dinesh Dayal, Dinesh Khanna and NK Khadiya, however, asked him be more specific in his statement and told him to corroborate it with witnesses at the party. The next hearing has been fixed for Wednesday (June 13).

D’Souza also claimed to have voluntarily accepted a provisional suspension ever since he was informed by the NADA and said he intimated the IHF about his decision.
Mathur was asked to provide a written document substantiating the claim. 

Marijuana is a ‘specified’ substance under WADA lists and does not call for a provisional suspension, according to the NADA rules. An athlete can, however, accept a voluntary provisional suspension irrespective of the categorization of substances.

In another case of two junior boxers, Ashwani Kumar and Manoj Kumar, who tested positive for THC during the National School Games, the judgment was reserved. The boys admitted that during the Games they smoked in their rooms. The panel warned them about the hazards of smoking and doping and the boys, both above 17, apologised.

Another boxer, Maharashtra’s Shivaji More, who tested positive for steroid nandrolone and stimulant strychnine during the Games, gave medical reasons but the prescriptions did not match substances detected in his urine sample. The order was reserved in his case, too.