India busts 467 drug cheats since 2007
NADA reports that 110 athletes and 85 weightlifters have been slapped with sanctions.
NEW DELHI (AFP) - Some 467 Indian sportsmen and women have been prosecuted for failing drugs tests since 2009, with track and field athletes and weightlifters leading the pack, according to the country s anti-doping agency.
The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) posted the list on its website which showed that 110 athletes and 85 weightlifters have been slapped with sanctions over the past five years.
Kabaddi, body-building, power-lifting, wrestling, boxing and judo were some of the other sports that thew up drug cheats, the list indicated.
Indian Sports Minister Jitendra Singh told parliament in August that the government had a zero tolerance policy towards drugs in sports and several workshops and educational programmes were conducted to raise awareness of the issue.
The most recent high-profile cases of doping in Indian sports involved six female athletes, including Ashwini Akkunji, who won gold medals in the 400m hurdles and the 4x400m relay at the 2010 Asian Games.
Akkunji, along with team mates Mandeep Kaur, Sini Jose, Jauna Murmu, Tiana Mary and Priyanka Panwar, tested positive for banned steroids such as stanozolol and methandienone in June, 2011.
The women, who were banned for two years, blamed contaminated food supplements supplied by their former Ukrainian coach Yuri Ogorodnik for the positive results.
