Insisting that all athletes in the Indian team for Athens Olympics are clean, a top Athletics Federation of India official today said negative media reports about athletes testing positive would only "discourage" them.
"Such media reports (which have raised doubts about athletes failing dope tests) only discourage athletes. Infact, our top athletes -- world number four long jumper Anju Bobby George and world no. 15 discus thrower Neelam Jaswant Singh -- are regularly tested by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)," Bhanot told reporters in Delhi.
"All athletes were tested a number of times when they competed in international and domestic meets," he said adding "that a report (about two Athens-bound athletes failing dope test) which appeared in one of the newspapers is not correct.
He, however said once the athletes were cleared there was no guarantee that they could not test positive ten days later.
"But what is the guarantee that some one who is negative today does not return a positive test ten days later?"
"All athletes inside the top-25 are on the WADA watch list. We have to give to WADA the whereabouts of the athletes and if anyone is found missing for more than 48 hours action is taken," Bhanot said.
"There is a proper system in place and proper follow up," he said while also criticising reports casting aspersions on athletes' training in Ukraine.
The latest instance of an athlete failing a dope test was of women's national hammer throw champion Harwant Kaur, who tested postive during the Inter-State Meet in Chennai last month.
The 27-year-old from Punjab was the first prominent athlete to fail a dope test after the 2002 National Games in Hyderabad, where eight athletes returned positive dope tests.
