Age and drugs take India's athletics way off track in a year filled with controversy

All this while, the Sports Ministry and Maheshwary himself, were in a state of suspended stasis as to the status of his Arjuna Award. Eventually, in a most embarrassing sequence of events, Maheshwary was intimated just hours before the awards function, that he was being hauled off the awardees’ list.

The issue of over-aged athletes too was not the first instance, and what’s more, it happened at an international event. At the Asian Youth Games in August in Nanjing, China, 17 young track and field athletes were sent back home from the games for being over the prescribed age limit.

For athletics, there was a different age criteria as compared to the other disciplines and this was overlooked, as the AFI sent athletes who were born before January 1, 1997, the date that was set for the athletics events.

This led to another administrative scuffle, this time between the AFI and the Sports Authority of India (SAI) which demanded compensation to the tune of Rs.10 lakh that it had spent to send the 17 athletes to China.

A moot point here is the oversight on the part of the organizers to provide some defence to the Indian authorities. As is the case with most international events, the name lists of the participants are sent across well in advance, and only after confirmation from the organizers are the participants sent. So how was it that the organizers failed to spot the discrepancy during verification? The Indian media likes a story and pounces on any given opportunity to beat up the sporting authorities, but there lies some share of the blame elsewhere too on this occasion.

Still, the fact that the AFI allowed such an oversight to happen under its watch is a major indictment of its operational efficiency.

Another instance where the ugly head of doping cropped up to cause more loss of face for the AFI was at the Asian Championships in Pune in July, when shot-putter Udaya Laxmi had to be forcibly withdrawn after she tested positive for a stimulant.

And if you thought that 2013 just happened to be an extremely unfortunate year for the AFI, if anything, it was a continuation of a deep-rooted malaise that has been in existence for a few years now.

The NADA furnished a report recently, in response to an RTI petition filed by a citizen, detailing instances of doping between January 2009 and July 2013. The figures were shocking.

In the above period, a total of 500 athletes were said to have tested positive for doping and 423 out of them had sanctions imposed on them by the Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (ADDP). Topping the list, in terms of number of offenders, was athletics.

Athletics had 113 doping violations in that period with weightlifting in tow in second place with 92 violations. The other disciplines to feature in the top were Kabaddi, Bodybuilding, Powerlifting, Wrestling, Boxing and Judo, in that order.

In some further indictment, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) revealed through one of its reports in August that India had the second-highest number of dope cheats placed in suspension in athletics, with 43, one behind Russia who had 44.

Certainly not the lists which the AFI would have wanted to be topping!

To cause further consternation to an already worried community, the NADA revealed that doping as an acceptable practice was starting young, with school-going athletes found to be rampantly using syringe-based performance enhancing drugs at an inter-school meet in Kerala.

During another event at the Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore, TOI reported to have again found a number of used syringes in both the boys and girls toilets. In fact, two of them, after having been caught red-handed by the Doping Control Officer (DCO) at the stadium, proceeded to run away from him. They were subsequently disqualified.

A similar expose was carried out by TOI at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Chennai in July-August.

Even internally, there wasn’t nothing for the AFI to write home about, as elections to its posts were held twice, after the first one was said to have violated the Sports Code put in place by the Sports Ministry. The President, treasurer and secretary elected through the first election were not recognized by the ministry and it threatened to de-recognize the AFI, similar to the IOC’s threat to India’s Olympic body.

After changes to the constitution, Adille Sumariwala, CK Valson and PK Srivastava were elected president, secretary and treasurer, respectively.

Going into 2014, a year in which the country will be participating in the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games, the signs are bad with the national athletic body seemingly exhibiting an alarming level of operational inefficiency.

The recurring instances of doping violations and age and eligibility related faux pas have cast a dark shadow on the capability of the administrators to lead the nation’s athletic federation on the right track.

There are many issues to mend, notable amongst them being repairing the discord and acrimony that was create between the AFI and other agencies such as the Sports Ministry and the SAI. Maintaining good relationships with these bodies is a must, if at all the athletes’ interests are to be well taken care of.

It’s tough stand to stamp out doping and cheating by handing out lengthy bans and suspensions is also a welcome move, as much as the state associations may crib about it. After all, India needs athletes that are clean and meeting the required eligibility criteria to be representing it at the major events. Falling prey to last minute withdrawals due to one issue or another in front of the global sporting community is not something the country would want to see at this juncture.

The multi-headed monster is at the shores threatening to swallow up Indian athletics. The proverbial hero, a saviour is needed to rescue the situation and men and women donning the posts at the AFI have a major task at hand. Indian athletics not so much needs as demands a new dawn in 2014.