Indian Sports Centers Raided for Banned Drugs

Posted July 11th, 2011 at 9:55 am (UTC-5)
Leave a comment

India's National Anti-Doping Agency has conducted raids at two of the country's top sports centers in search of banned drugs.

A raid Monday at the the center for elite athletes in the southern city of Bangalore comes after a string of doping cases earlier this month.

The agency also searched the National Institute of Sports in the northern city of Patiala over the weekend.

Eight Indian track and field athletes have tested positive for banned anabolic steroids in recent weeks. Six of them, all 400-meter runners, had trained at the Patiala center.

The athletes have all said they are innocent and blamed contaminated food supplements for the test results.

Indian Sports Minister Ajay Macken fired the coach of the 400-meter runners, Ukrainian Yuri Ogorodnik, last week.

The sports ministry has also appointed a former judge to head an inquiry into the doping scandal.