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Not that easy to get rid of a coach here
In 2003, Hansa Sharma - chief coach of the women's weightlifting squad that took part in the 1999 Athens World Championship, was among the eight coaches suspended in the wake of a major doping scandal. Sharad Deep reports.
In 2003, Hansa Sharma - chief coach of the women's weightlifting squad that took part in the 1999 Athens World Championship, was among the eight coaches suspended in the wake of a major doping scandal.
Seven years later, she has been entrusted with an even bigger responsibility: To train the 'core group' for the 2012 London Olympic Games.
In a country where there are numerous legal loopholes which can be exploited to make comebacks, you never know even Ukrainian coach Yuri Ogorodnik - in the midst of the biggest dope scandal to hit Indian athletics - could be consulted again in the future.
Fear factor
The core group lifters, training in Bangalore, are shocked and have become so cautious that even while taking meals, drinking water or even consuming approved medicines, they are taking utmost precaution.
HT is in possession of recorded messages of two players at the camp, which show how insecure the lifters are feeling. "You can't rely on anyone. As Hansa has a tainted record, everybody here is cautious," said a top lifter. "I don't allow anyone to fetch even a glass of water for me as the chances are that it could be spiked," she added.
"She (Hansa) should not be allowed in the camp as her track record isn't good. I have my apprehensions that some lifters might return positive if Hansa continues to be the chief coach," former secretary-general of the Indian Weightlifting Federation BR Gulati told HT. "I don't know under what pressure Hansa was made coach of the core group, when she has a record of producing tainted lifters," he said.
Hansa was also the personal trainer of tainted lifter Shaileja Pujari, gold-medallist at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, who was dropped from the India squad in 2006 because of doping and banned for life in 2010.
"She (Hansa) has been responsible for all the dope cases in women's weightlifting since 1995, and she shouldn't be allowed to come close to the national athletes," added Gulati, who had suspended Hansa till the 2010 CWG.
Three of her trainees at the Lucknow centre - Thoenu Devi, Ranu Mohanty and Subhangi Karande - tested positive at the Junior Nationals at Chennai in 2003. Before that, her trainee, Porangavi Devi, was caught in the dope net at the Senior Nationals in Lucknow. Just before the Beijing Olympic Games, ace lifter Monika Devi had demanded her removal from the camp.
However, Hansa denied the charges. "Had I not given good results, I would never have been given charge of the national camp again. Some people don't want me to be with the national team," Hansa said.
"No lifter is apprehensive or feeling unsafe in the camp," she said, adding, "It's true that some lifters have gone home because of personal reasons. Everyone is dope-free here. Frequent tests by NADA and WADA officials are common in the camp, so there is no question of anyone being doped," she added.
WFI secretary Sahdeo Yadav said, "Everything is fine at the camp. A coach was removed recently after some medicines were recovered from him."
