New Delhi, July 4
The doping scandal in Indian athletics grew in proportion today with two more athletes, including the country's new golden girl Ashwini Akkunji, testing positive for anabolic steroids hours before the departure for Japan for the Asian Championships.

Apart from Akkunji, quartermiler Priyanka Panwar also returned positive for anabolic steroids in the dope tests conducted on June 27 by NADA at NIS Patiala, taking the tally of dope offenders to eight in the last few days.

The development is all the more shocking as Akkunji, who had won gold in Commonwealth and Asian Games last year, and Panwar were to leave for Japan for July 7-11 Asian Championships by an 11:30 pm flight from here along with 35 other athletes.

Athletics Federation of India has provisionally suspended both the athletes pending a hearing by a NADA disciplinary panel. "It is sad to announce that two more athletes - Ashwini Akkunji and Priyanka Panwar - tested positive for anabolic steroids. We have provisionally suspended them. Next, they will be called for 'B' sample tests and then the necessary procedure will be followed," Dogra told reporters.

Akkunji and Panwar were named in the 4x400m relay team for the Asian Championships and Dogra said two other athletes in the 37-member team will take their places. "We cannot send any replacement of the two athletes now, but we will field a relay team in Japan. Two other athletes (besides Tintu Luka and Mrudula Korada) from the team will run in the relay," he said.

Both Akkunji and Priyanka tested positive for metabolites of methandienone, which were found in the samples of other CWG and Asian Games gold-winning relay quartet members Mandeep Kaur and Sini Jose as well another qaurtermiler Jauna Murmu.

Another qaurtermiler Tiana Mary Thomas had tested positive for anabolic steroid epimethandiol. Long Jumper Hari Krishnan Muralidharan and shot putter Sonia were the other athletes who have tested positive in the last few days. — PTI 

New Delhi, July 4
The athletes who have been tested positive for banned substances and stand ostracised cannot be entirely blamed for their plight since they can also be genuine mistakes due to their ignorance and inexperience. Many athletes may not even know how the stimulants get into their system, which lead to their being caught out.

Many times, medicines taken for common cold, cough and other minor ailments can deceive them. Sometimes food supplements also contain banned substances. In India, there is no proper education of the athletes about the perils of doping and food supplements, vitamin tables and medicines that lead to it.

Though the country seems to have taken many steps to weed out the menace, no fool-proof system has yet been devised to keep the athletes away from performance-enhancing drugs. Self-doubts are created in the minds of the athletes due to the tentative methods adopted by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA). WADA, which publishes a list of the banned drugs every year, fails to convey this list to sportspersons. It updates its list every September, which then becomes effective from January next year. This information is available only on the WADA website and the sportspersons and others can learn about this list only from there.

In many cases, such a list does not reach the sportspersons training for various international competitions. Though it is the duty of WADA and NADA to ensure that the updated list is circulated among the sportspersons, that rarely happens. Even general physicians are also not aware of the banned list of drugs, and as a consequence, tablets and syrups prescribed for cough and cold might contain banned substances.

As per the agreements between the National Olympic Committee of each country and WADA, the top athletes would have to inform WADA about their whereabouts, whose officials can any time come and test the athletes, during competitions and out of competition.

Sports Medicine expert Dr P.S.M. Chandran said a top athlete like Anju Bobby George, who has won long jump medals in the World Championship, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, has been put to such tests several times, as were many other champion athletes of the country. Chandran said though normally, only urine samples are collected for testing, blood samples are also collected if a particular athlete is suspected to have used drugs and injections for enhanced stamina and hormone growth. If the A sample test proves positive, then the B sample is also tested to ensure that the athlete was on dope.

In most instances, athletes are caught for using steroids such as Stanozolol, Methandienone, Testosterone and Nandrolone. Sunita Rani, gold medalist in 1500m in the 2002 Busan Asian Games and Neelam Jaswant Singh, who participated in the 2005 World Championship in Helsinki, had tested positive for steroids.

The use of performance-enhancing drugs became rampant in India ever since the Government gave a quantum hike to the prize money for medal winners. The coaches also stand to benefit if their wards strike it rich in the international competitions. They can take credit for a “job well done” for medals won in major meets. Thus, the dope-trail is very deep and strong, and it would be very difficult to pinpoint only one person as the guilty party.

London, July 4
Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic, who has won 48 of his 49 matches this year, replaced Rafael Nadal as the new World No.1. Nadal, who lost to Djokovic for fifth time this year Sunday, has been pushed to the second spot followed by Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Robin Soderling in the top five in the latest South African Airways ATP Rankings released Monday.

Djokovic was guaranteed to move to No. 1 as a result of his semifinal win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Friday. Tsonga, who defeated six-times Wimbledon champion Federer in the quarterfinals, gained five places to move to the 14th.

Djokovic's rise is also the end of the seven year domination of Federer-Nadal at the top. Nadal had been No. 1 for the past 56 weeks since June 7, 2010, and 102 weeks overall. The last player to rank No. 1 before Nadal and Federer was American Andy Roddick, in the week of January 26, 2004.

"This is an amazing achievement to get to the top spot, especially with rivals such as Rafa and Roger," the ATP website quoted Djokovic as saying. "They made me work so hard and made me improve every day. There are no words to express how good they are but I always thought that I could become No. 1 one day. Both the belief and the hard work took me there," said the winner of three majors.

At 24 years, the Belgrade native is the 25th player in the history of the ATP Rankings (since 1973) to hold the No. 1 position in men's tennis.

Djokovic leads the ATP World Tour with a career-best eight titles in 2011, including his second Australian Open crown in January and his first Wimbledon trophy. He also captured four ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles. — IANS 

New Delhi, July 4
The semifinal appearance in the women's doubles event at the just concluded Wimbledon championship today catapulted Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina to number two slot in the WTA Race to year-end Championships.

Sania-Elena pair have 4506 points in the list, headed by Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik, who have 6865 points. The top-four pairs compete in the prestigious year-end championship.

"The partnership with Elena has been great in the last four months, specially the Slams. When we started playing together last year at Dubai, and had somebody said that we will be number two after Wimbledon, we would have laughed," Sania told PTI from Dubai.

In the ATP rankings, Somdev Devvarman rose to career-best 63 in the singles. Leander Paes also improved his doubles rankings by getting back into the top-10. He is placed eighth while his partner Mahesh Bhupathi is highest ranked Indian in the list at number five. Rohan Bopanna is at number 10, just behind his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi. — PTI 

Dominica, July 4
Team India have a ‘Save Dhoni’ campaign ahead of them if they want to pre-empt a ban on their skipper in the Lord's Test against England, beginning July 21. Dhoni must not have his team turn up slow on the over-rate in the third Test against the West Indies here from Wednesday, for it would incur an immediate ban of one Test match on him.

The Indian team follow their Caribbean odyssey with a star-billed series in England this summer and if Dhoni's team is not alert, it could make him sit out in the Lord's Test. Dhoni has already been twice guilty of breaching ICC Code of Conduct, rule 2.5, which states that a captain who is pulled up for three offences of slow over-rates in a 12-month period, would suffer an automatic ban in the next match of the same format.

Dhoni and his men were deemed to have bowled three overs short during the recently-concluded Barbados Test, which was the second such offence in 2011, following a similar breach of rules in the Cape Town Test against South Africa earlier this year.

The onus is now on India's three premier bowlers to avert such a fate befalling their skipper. Ishant Sharma is in fantastic form with a 10-wicket haul in the drawn Barbados Test, but he takes unusually long time to finish up his overs.

"Ishant takes a long time to return to his bowling crease and it sometimes stretches his over to seven minutes," said an insider from the Barbados Test.

The case with Praveen Kumar is a little different. Praveen does return to his bowling mark briskly but he has the habit of standing and looking at the batsman, after a delivery has passed the bat and gone to the wicketkeeper.

Even Harbhajan Singh, though a spinner, is not much of a help in making up for slow overs. "If he bowls 20 overs in a day, you would still find the slow over-rate hasn't improved by much." To be fair to Harbhajan, he got to bowl only 14 and 19 overs from the two innings in the Barbados Test. — PTI

Olonne Sur mer, July 4
Mark Cavendish could get the chance to shine in Monday's 198-km third stage of the Tour de France, one of the few opportunities this year for pure sprinters to take the limelight. "Of course it's an objective and Mark has targeted this stage," the Briton's HTC Highroad team director Allan Peiper said.

"After all he has won 15 stages on the flat in the past three years. But Mark also won hard stages in the last couple of years and I can see him play a leading role in Cap Frehel and Lisieux as well."

Since his debut in 2008, the Manxman has won 15 Tour stages and Monday's flat ride taking the peloton from Vendee to Redon in Brittany is a gift to sprinters. Cavendish, though, has been less prolific this season than in previous years with only four wins, including two Giro d'Italia stages.

Asked about the Briton's condition, Australia's Peiper said it was always hard to know where Cavendish stood. "You never know with Mark but he improves with the stages as we saw last year. It can take a little bit of time," Peiper said. "But tomorrow is an opportunity to seize the green jersey and Mark always manages to rise to the occasion when under pressure."

The Tour points classification, and the green jersey, is one of the main achievements still eluding the greatest sprinter of his generation and the new points system for intermediate sprints could work in his favour. However, the opposition is fierce again this year with last year's points winner Alessandro Petacchi, American Tyler Farrar, Belgian Tom Boonen and young Briton Ben Swift all eager to steal the show. — Reuters

New Delhi, July 4
Keshav Malik, a boy from Rohtak, did the country proud when he won gold in the men's doubles badminton, partnering Rohan Jaywant, in the ongoing Special Olympics 2011 in Greece.

Players from 185 countries are competing in the Special Olympics. Keshav had earlier won the mixed doubles silver, pairing up with Shakhu Nagarkar.

Keshav, who has won many medals at the national and international competitions, is a student of coach Deepak Walia at the Arpan Special School in Rohtak. His father, Kulkar Singh Malik said though the boy studies in a special school due to being a victim of Slow Learners’ Syndrome, he had showed early promise in badminton. Under Walia’s coaching, Keshav picked up the nuances of the game very fast to bring laurels to the country in the Special Olympics where he and his partner beat a tough field to win the gold.

Keshav is also a good dancer and did Haryana proud by donning the traditional dress of the State in the opening pageant. 

Srinagar, July 4
The first major cricket extravaganza of the Kashmir, the Kashmir Premier League (KPL), was kick started today by Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah at the Delhi Public School ground here.

The inaugural T20 match was played between the Srinagar Sherdils and the Budgam Badshahs which Srinagar Sherdils won by six wickets. Budgam Badshahs scored only 99 all out and Sherdils achieved the target with six wickets remaining.

The month-long tournament, jointly organised by the Army and the Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association, will see 14 teams from 10 districts of the Valley competing. Fifty matches will be played on different grounds across the Valley.

The General Officer-in-Commanding of the Srinagar-based Chinar Corps, Lt. Gen. S.A. Hasnain, whose brainchild this tournament is, said that the winning team will get Rs 5 lakh in cash while the runners-up will get rupees three lakh. Besides, the best players of the tournament would be sent to top cricket academies of the country for free coaching.

Gen. Hasnain said the selection of teams was done after a marathon fixture of 294 matches held in the 10 districts of the Valley. He said the tournament would be held between from July 4 to August 3. “There was great enthusiasm in the cricketers of the Valley to be part of the tournament. In one district, there were 84 teams which participated in the selection process,” he said.

La Plata, July 4
Holders Brazil were held 0-0 by Venezuela in their opening Copa America Group B match on Sunday after being denied a possible penalty and seeing Alexandre Pato hit the bar.

"This is the first chapter of something historic and we're going to be talked about a lot," Venezuela striker Nicolas Fedor said after his side celebrated the draw like a victory. Venezuela survived a controversial decision from Bolivian referee Raul Orosco when Brazil looked to have earned a penalty for handball near the end of the first half. Goalkeeper Renny Vega parried a shot and Robinho, following through, hit the rebound on target. Defender Oswaldo Vizcarrondo, scrambling back, slipped as he tried to block the ball with his body. The ball appeared to hit his upper arm before bouncing out, with a corner given.

Brazil dominated the first half and striker Pato blasted a shot against the bar in the 38th minute and had three other efforts on target. The Brazilians constantly stretched the Venezuela defence with Neymar out wide and linking with full back Andre Santos on the left, while Daniel Alves pressed forward on the right and Robinho looked for openings through the middle.

It was the second match in the tournament's first three days in which favourites were held to draws after hosts Argentina had to come from behind to hold Bolivia 1-1 on Friday. — Reuters

BRIEFLY

‘It's a good thing that drug cheats are being caught’
Mumbai: Former world champion long jumper Mike Powell feels that it is a blessing in disguise that athletes who are using banned drugs are being caught by the regulatory authorities. "If you look at it, it's a good thing. It shows we are taking this seriously. Athletics is one of the few sports which is willing to burst its stars. As of now, if you try to use something now you are taking a big, big risk," Powell, currently the brand ambassador of the world athletics body IAAF told reporters here. — PTI

F1 boss declares Vettel best
London: Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has declared Sebastian Vettel as the best driver in the sport. Ecclestone heaped praise on the 24-year-old, who just won the Valencia Grand Prix and compared him with F1 legend Michael Schumacher, The Mirror reports. "Sebastian is in a position similar to Michael (Schumacher). He is the best right now. Each race weekend starts with a big question - who will be able to beat Vettel," Ecclestone was quoted as saying. Ecclestone's remarks have come as blow to Vettel's archrival, Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton has already seen the Red Bull racer steal his records as youngest pole sitter, youngest winner and youngest champion. — ANI

Victoria Beckham feels ‘blessed’ with 4th pregnancy
London: Victoria Beckham has revealed that she feels blessed to be pregnant with her fourth child with husband David Beckham. The 37-year-old fashion designer admitted that while she anticipates the birth, she would have a lot to juggle when she gives birth. “As any working mum out there knows, it really is like juggling glass balls when you've got the kids and a husband to look after, and you’re passionate about your career,” she said. However, Victoria, who already has sons Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz said that she feels blessed to be expecting again. — ANI