Patiala, July 10
An internal Sports Authority of India (SAI) probe ordered by Sports Minister Ajay Maken into the recent doping fiasco has fixed the responsibility of the lapses primarily on Ukrainian coach Yuri Ogrodnik and the National Institute of Sports (NIS) management.

SAI is expected to submit its report to the Sports Ministry, detailing the reasons and possibilities as to how banned substances entered NIS. The report, to be submitted tomorrow, further states that Ogrodnik had accepted that he bought supplements from outside NIS and the same fact is substantiated by two tainted athletes, quizzed during the course of investigations.

A senior SAI official confirmed that the report is already with the Director-General, SAI, and is expected to be submitted to the Sports Minister tomorrow. Maken had asked the DG, SAI, on July 5 to probe and submit a report within three days about any vigilance lapses and availability of such drugs/dope on the NIS premises.

The report, prepared by a SAI Executive Director (Teams) P.C. Kashyap, points out a major lapse on the part of NIS Patiala, wherein they ran out of food supplements stock for a few days as the contract with the company supplying these had lapsed and there were administrative delays in renewing the same.

“While official supplements finished before April 30, it was only in May that the contract was given an extension and supplements supplied again into NIS, by which time the foreign coach Yuri Ogrodnik had given self-bought supplements to the national campers on May 10,” states the report.

Highly-placed sources said that the report was prepared after detailed questioning of the coaching fraternity at NIS and two of the tainted athletes. “Dope positive athletes Joanna Murmu and Mandeep Kaur were questioned in addition to the Ukrainian athletic coach Yuri Ogrodnik and they have accepted to have used supplements bought by Ogrodnik from Guangzhou (China) and other supplements from outside,” They said, claiming the Ginseng supplements solely could not be blamed for the dope positive results.

A senior official present during the two-member visit to NIS a few days ago revealed that the report also raises issue with administrative failures at NIS, due to which some of the possibly avoidable lapses could not be avoided. “Supplement shortage, senior NIS officials busy in other works, lack of coordination between athletes and the official doctor at NIS and the foreign coach running the entire show are some of the serious lapses mentioned in the report,” he said.

When contacted, Kashyap confirmed that he had submitted his fact-finding report to the SAI top brass. “The report was prepared after my two-day visit to NIS Patiala and I had questioned many coaches, players, including some accused of doping, on the campus,” he said.

Speaking on the entire issue, Ogrodnik said that he was open to a probe and irrespective of whatever was being said, he had not given dope to any of his campers and that he has already explained it all to the SAI team. “I accept that supplements were bought by me, but there was an absolute necessity as they were not available with NIS and the Olympic bound Indian campers needed it,” he said.