Syringes recovered from Indian athletes' rooms at the Commonwealth Games

The Indian team management should have been more pro active to avoid such an embarrassment

They were warned multiple times

It’s been over a week since the conclusion of the Commonwealth Games (CWG). India returned home with 64 medals. Before the dust settles after all the euphoria, there is a report suggesting that syringes and needles were found in the rooms of Indian athletes during their stay in Glasgow.

The housekeeping staff at the games village were trained to check the presence of dubious elements before the start of the games. They saw the syringes for the first time in the room of a para-athlete. However, this wasn’t the only instance. They also found it on the lounge and in the rooms of the wrestlers.

The Indian team management had assured the CWG medical commission and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that their athletes were clean. They were earlier reprimanded for not providing the whereabouts of athletes. The Indian team management had given a written undertaking after they were warned on three occasions and to educate the athletes about the ‘anti-doping rule violation’.

International Olympic Committee rules, which came into effect at the 2012 London Olympics, state that all injections -from the opening of the village to the closing ceremony of the Games - will have to be medically justified. Every injection administered will have to reflect in a declaration form to be forwarded to the medical director. The Commonwealth Games Federation, which had introduced these rules for the first time in Glasgow, was obviously not too strict in implementing them. Had the officials gone according to the book, India would have faced disciplinary action, additional testing and possible sanctions.

Raj Singh remains defiant

India's chef de mission Raj Singh confirmed the news and went on to defend the athletes.

"The athletes used the syringes to administer multi-vitamin doses. "There was no rule violation involved. I was present at the medical commission hearing and they too gave us a clean chit." He also admitted that the managers and coaches of the respective teams should have monitored the whole situation better.

"They ought to have taken more responsibility. After the first incident, we conduct raids in some of the rooms. But it is not humanly possible for a small team to keep an eye on the entire contingent," he opined. "As it is, the syringes were found in the wrestlers' room after they had left for India," he added.

Raids conducted at the medical commission's behest led to further confiscation of syringes along with vials of Neurobion and Astymin (multi-vitamins), which athletes normally inject themselves with for a 'healthy feeling'. "Such medicines have a placebo effect," sources said.

According to a medical commission source, the CGF went easy on such transgressions after many countries complained that the new 'no-needle' policy had not been disseminated among their athletes.

"The next CWG in Australia will see stricter enforcement of the rules," the source said.