India's set to improve in doping violators' list: NADA

India's embarrassingly high ranking in the global doping violators' list is expected to become more "respectable", the National Anti-Doping Agency claimed today, asserting that it has successfully tightened its monitoring system.
In a statement issued here, NADA said in the year gone by it conducted 151 tests.
"During the year 2016 NADA tightened the monitoring system on top level athletes and a total of 151 tests were conducted in the Registered Testing Pool (RTP), the global list of world level athletes maintained by WADA, which was more than the number of such tests carried out in earlier years (148 tests in RTP done during 2015)," the NADA stated.

"During the domestic meets the National Anti-Doping Agency decided to conduct tests in all recognised national level events for seniors in disciplines where doping was prevalent.
"However, the focus has been that of targeted testing of high performers rather than underachievers, and also to avoid repeated testing of individual athletes over short periods," it added.
NADA said it has asked national federations to provide their annual calendars well in advance.

"Federations are expected to convey their calendar of activities (and subsequent changes if any) well in advance for effective dope control planning. Due to a large number of dope cheats, India stood at an embarrassing 3rd rank worldwide in 2014 with 95 anti-doping rule violations," it said.

"The incidence of doping further increased during 2015 to an even further embarrassing figure of 120 which is unfortunately close to a number two place worldwide.
"Due to effective preventive strategies adopted by NADA during 2016, the incidence of doping in India has significantly decreased to a figure of 73 violations, which may bring India to a more respectable position close to fourth worldwide," it added.
Listing its programmes, NADA said it has been trying to reach out to as many athletes and coaches as possible to spread awareness.
"In the year 2016, NADA in association with Sports Authority of India (SAI) &some National Sports Federations (NSFs) conducted as many as 52 anti-doping education and awareness programs in various part of India. These programs were targeted for sportspersons, young athletes, coaches and support staff," it said.

NADA said it has also come to its notice that some
athletes were targetted deliberately by their federations.
"Instances were observed where NADA was unduly targeting some athletes and repeatedly testing them time and again, even more than 4 to 5 times a year, which now stands discontinued," the body stated.
"During 2016 NADA has collected 336 samples from weightlifters which are fairly distributed amongst junior teams preparing for international or national events and camps, and senior teams preparing for Olympics, international events, national events & national camps.
"For minor weightlifters, NADA has focussed on anti-doping education and awareness programs," it added.

The most number of tests conducted last year were on track and field athletes.
"In the discipline of athletics, 1122 tests were conducted by NADA during the year 2016 out of which 23 tested positive. The number of sanctions imposed by NADA disciplinary panels have gone up from 17 in 2015 to 28 in 2016 in the athletics discipline," it said.
"NADA would normally collect samples during any national camp preparing for a recognised International event. However, for the national camp which began in December 2016 to prepare athletes for Asian championships in June 2017, NADA did not receive any information from AFI regarding the camp.

"In shooting, NADA has collected 123 dope sample in 2016 but no anti-doping rule violation was observed. No incidence of doping was observed in shooting during 2015 as well," it added.
In the tentative test plan prepared for this year, NADA is expected to test more than 4000 samples with an increase in the number for priority disciplines of athletics, weightlifting, boxing, cycling and football.