New Delhi - An Indian weightlifter disqualified from the Olympics because of a positive drug test said on Friday her coach - who remains at the Olympics Village in Athens - ordered injections for her during training and controlled everything she ate or drank.
Under front page banner headlines declaring "Shame," Indian newspapers on Friday questioned why the Sports Authority of India's laboratory cleared Pratima Kumari Na in a drugs test in the first week of August, days before she failed the Olympics check.
"This positive test has raised several questions about Indian officials' seriousness in tackling the menace of doping," The Hindustan Times said. "It has also raised questions about SAI's dope laboratory in New Delhi."
Kumari, 28, told India's Zee TV News that during her training in Belarus her coach, Pal Singh Sandhu, and a Russian coach "accompanied me to the doctor, who injected me with some substance since I was suffering from back pain.
"I don't know what was in those spinal injections," Kumari said. "I was given 10 injections. They told me it would ease the pain, but I felt no better. However, within days my body broke out in a rash and my face and body were covered in eruptions. These have not cleared up." Eruptions on her face and neck were visible during the television interview.
"Before I left for Athens, I underwent a dope test in India and I was cleared," said Kumari, who was to compete in the 63kg category.
"In Athens, I've had no help from anyone. Coach Sandhu said, 'I can't help you. You have to fight this on your own.'
"How can he do this?" Kumari said. "He trained me. He used to decide what I could eat and what I couldn't eat."
Indian newspapers also reported that senior Indian sports officials had lied to the news media about the reason for Kumari's absence until the International Weightlifting Federation announced that she and Sanamacha Chanu - who finished fourth on Sunday at 53kg - had been disqualified and suspended for failing Olympics drug tests.
The Hindustan Times reported that Chanu is a repeat offender, meaning her suspension could be for life.
Kumari said her coach told her to return to India on August 15, saying she had failed a drug test. Yet the Asian Age newspaper quoted the deputy chief of India's Olympic contingent, Harish Sharma, as saying Indian officials were only told on August 16 that Kumari had failed the August 12 test.
The day before the IWF announcement, Sharma told Indian newspapers Kumari had withdrawn from competition voluntarily because of a "back problem" and he withheld the fact that she had already returned to India.
"I have waited 10 years for the Olympics," Kumari said on Zee News. "I never had a family life, never celebrated a festival, never took a holiday. I was training all the time with the goal of getting into the Olympics."
"No sportsperson should go through what I have," she added.
