Chandigarh: With three more athletes testing positive in the dope test conducted by NADA, the World Cup Kabaddi toll has touched seven.
Three players - one each from Spain, USA and Argentina - were found positive for nandrolone and a stimulant. The Argentinean sample contained a glucosteroid long with nandrolone. The random sampling was taken in Faridkot on Day Two of the tournament.
The players have been provisionally suspended and barred from taking part in the competition till their names are cleared. There have been no positive cases in the Indian camp.
"We had conducted 60 tests during the trials of which 20 were positive. Obviously, it came as a warning to the Indian participants," NADA director general Rahul Bhatnagar told TOI. NADA, which has dispatched three teams to the venues, will test all the participants at the World Cup, Bhatnagar added.
Apprehensions were cast even before the start of the tournament that players are taking steroids and performance-enhancing drugs but the crackdown by NADA has made the organizers' worst fears come true.
Organizing secretary Pargat Singh said, "Twelve samples were taken from Dhudike (near Moga) and their results too will soon be out. The respective teams were clearly told that the officials will be very strict as far as anti-doping measures are concerned."
With the doping toll mounting every day, the organizing committee too is feeling the heat as it failed to secure certificates from the respective federations about the players being clean before the start of the tournament. It is learnt that the organizing committee asked respective federations just 10 days before the start of the tournament, whereas it takes at least three weeks to complete the whole procedure.
After 20 players were found positive during trials, NADA had specially asked the Punjab state government to ascertain that all the participating teams had dope-free players.
"We asked all the teams to furnish certificates a week earlier, some of them did it but the majority of them could not. Australia and Canada had cited lack of time but were ready to take the tests here in India," Pargat said.
TOI