JOIN USThe Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) has released its comprehensive order on the two-year ban of the six Indian female quarter-milers for dope violations.
Ashwini Akkunji, Priyanka Panwar, Sini Jose, Madeep Kaur, Jauna Murmu and Tiana Mary Thomas were handed a year’s sentence by the National Anti-doping disciplinary panel in December last year but the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) appealed in the CAS, resulting in the two-year suspension of all the athletes.
The CAS noted that the athletes were negligent in consuming the ginseng supplied by the coach, resulting in the positive tests that led to their bans.
The sole arbiter, England’s Mark Hovell, ruled that the athletes did not check the labels and they did not do any research on the internet. The product, Kianpil pills (ginseng) was bought by the Ukrainian coach, Yuri Ogorodnik, in China during the 2010 Asian Games, the athletes had claimed, in order to explain the positive tests through alleged contamination.
The athletes’ argument that they were not educated enough to enquire about the substance on the internet was rejected on the ground that some of them were on the Facebook. Their contention that internet facilities were not available at the NIS, Patiala, was also rebutted by the IAAF.
The IAAF argued that there was no proof to show that the supplement was bought from China and it produced a written statement from the Chinese company to prove that Kianpi pills were not available at its outlet at the Games Village during the Asian Games.
Coach Yuri was also not sure whether their positive test was because of the pills.