I'm shocked at the findings: Kunjarani

"I am sick and tired of answering the same question time and again," said weightlifter Kunjarani Devi, when contacted by rediff.com at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium on Monday morning.

Obviously, she was upset as scribes kept breathing down her neck after the International Weightlifting Federation stripped her of the two gold and one silver medals she won at the Asian Senior women's and men's weightlifting championship, in Seoul last month, for testing positive for a banned drug.

Kunjarani's A sample showed the presence of the banned drug 'strychnine' during random tests carried out at the July 12-17 championships.

In a scathing letter, dated August 23, to the ad-hoc committee of the Indian Weightlifting Association, anti-doping committee chairman Philippe Saint Cyr has asked it to return the medals won by Kunjarani and inform the committee within seven days whether it would like the 'B' sample to be tested or not.

"In compliance with the IWF doping policy, the competitor whose sample proves to be positive, is immediately suspended and her competitive results are annulled. As per the IWF rules, Ms Kunjarani Devi will be suspended for six months until January 18,2002," Philippe said in his letter.

"Your request for the analysis of the 'B' sample must reach our office until August 29, 2001," he added.

"I am myself shocked at the findings of the dope test. I was not well and I took 'Disprin' and some coffee. Maybe, that resulted in too much of 'strychnine' being found in my urine. When I gave my urine sample the man who was taking the sample dropped it. I was forced to stand in the bathroom for more then three hours before another sample was picked up," Kunjarani Devi told rediff.com.

However, she had no answer when asked why then did she and her coach sign the dope testing document.

"We cannot do much because she and her coach have signed the doping document. If the sample tube was broken then they could have asked for another sample to be taken there and then. After all, they are both experienced people," said Balbir Singh, member ad-hoc committee of the Indian Weightlifting Association.

He showed all the documents that he had received from the international body and blamed the paucity of time for the mess up.

"It is mandatory to do doping tests on all those who leave the shores of the country to take part in international tournaments. Those testing positive are off-loaded. But in this case no dope test was done at the Indian lab before the team left for the Asian senior women's and men's championship in South Korea," he informed.

Meanwhile, Balbir on Monday handed over a letter to Kunjarani Devi, asking her to return her medals so that the same could be returned to the international federation.

In view of the ban imposed by the international federation, Kunjarani will not be considered for the first AfroAsian Games, to be held in Delhi in November.