Shooting federation gives clean chit to Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in dope case

While attempting to exonerate Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore of doping charges, the International Shooting Sports Federation on Thursday admitted there had been lapses on its part in handling the case a few days before the Athens Olympics in 2004. What this does is leave no doubt at all about Rathore's silver medal winning performance at the Athens Games.

As Mail Today reported on Thursday, Rathore's 'A' and 'B' samples had tested positive for the banned substance 'prednisolone' at the Asian Clay Shooting Championships in Bangkok in July 2004, but he was given a goahead by the ISSF to compete in the Olympics without a hearing.

In response to pointed questions from Mail Today, ISSF secretary general Franz Schreiber, whose father Horst G. Schreiber had held this post at the time of the incident, stated that the results of championships, where four other shooters from the region had also tested positive for the substance, should have been expunged from the record books.

"Article 9 of the WADA Code does in fact state that any result obtained in an event where an Anti-Doping Rule Violation has occurred must be cancelled. Yet, as the ISSF's initial decision was to not assert the anti-doping rule violation, these results were not cancelled. Certainly, once the Warnings were issued, the results should have been cancelled in accordance with the Rules. The reason or administrative oversight as to why this was not done is beyond our knowledge at this point," Schreiber said.

Asked why Rathore was allowed to compete despite the positive test, and why the ISSF president and secretary general had given him and the other shooters the allclear without a hearing, Schreiber said: "Collaboration is primordial in the fight against doping in sport. A fight to which ISSF is fully committed as can be demonstrated from our various educational initiatives and our testing program. The ISSF is of the firm opinion that all shooters who intentionally break the ISSF AntiDoping Rules should be sanctioned in accordance with the ISSF Rules.

"But the ISSF has always equally been of the opinion that compassion and lenience should be afforded to those who demonstrate that they have unintentionally slipped into a violation, as ISSF was convinced happened in the case of Mr Rathore and other 4 athletes (not from India), who all inadvertently tested positive for small traces of the same substance at the same time and at the same event in 2004.

"In 2004, following their initial review of these 5 cases, the ISSF medical committee had initially decided to not assert the antidoping rule violations based on their appreciation and review of the case. Such a decision was well in accordance with all antidoping rules. And because the results management of these cases had ended there, none of the athletes were sanctioned because no hearings were held. As such, all five athletes were able to resume competing, including those who had qualified for the OGs."

Asked why there had been a subsequent meeting between the ISSF and delegations representing the national sports federations and the shooters concerned on August 18, 2004, Schreiber admitted to yet another lapse on the international governing body's part.

"This was a time when anti-doping, and the many new Rules and Regulations related to it, was still in its infancy, the ISSF then realized that in order to better comply with the ISSF Rules and the WADA Code it was best to assert the violations, convene a hearing and sanction the athletes in accordance with the Rules.

"In light of the fact that there was no doubt whatsoever that the athletes had no significant fault in the matter (they showed how the substance entered their system, that they gained no performance enhancing effect from its use and that they never intended to cheat the system), all five athletes were sanctioned with a Warning and the matter ended there," he said.