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The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) on Wednesday brushed aside concerns that more doping cases could embarrass the country in future following closure of national camps, saying that it will continue to monitor the athletes and share relevant information with the NADA. The AFI decided to end national camps after the Paris Olympics, except for the relay teams which will still be under the direct supervision of the national body. For a long time, AFI has a policy of not picking non-campers for relay teams in view of the fact that they cannot tested frequently. The athletes can now train at the National Centers of Excellence which are under Sports Authority of India (SAI) or they can choose private bodies like the JSW, Reliance and Tata. They can also train at centers attached with states or with Army, Navy or Air Force.
“We have formed a separate monitoring team which will monitor all the places where the athletes train. It will collect information of each athlete. This information will be shared to the NADA,” outgoing AFI president Adille Sumariwalla said when asked if it will not be difficult to track the athletes.
He also said that the General Body of the AFI has approved the report of the committee which was formed to look into the doping issue.
“We had constituted a committee under IPS officer Sagarpreet Hooda who is commissioner special cell of Delhi Police on doping issue. He has made some recommendations and the AGM has approved the recommendations. Now we will see which are implementable and how we do that.” Sumariwalla served three consecutive terms as AFI president since 2012. He was replaced by 2002 Asian Games shot put gold winner Bahadur Singh Sagoo on Tuesday. But Sumariwalla said the AFI can only recommend the athletes to be admitted to the NCoEs.
“Any new thing will have positive and negative aspects. Of course, it will be difficult to implement initially but we believe it will be beneficial in the long run. The athletes can now train near their homes and families, can have food they like.
“Moreover, it is also about widening the pool of athletes. Earlier, we had less than 150 athletes in national camps under the AFI. Now just the NCoEs can accommodate a thousand athletes.”
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