CWG gold medalist Mirabai Chanu suggests CCTV cameras to prevent doping allegations

05/28/2018

Gold Coast CWG gold medalist Mirabai Chanu has asked the sports ministry to install CCTV cameras at important locations like the training and dining halls to avoid any instances of doping. Chanu will train for three weeks in Thailand as part of her preparation for the Asian Games in Jakarta.

Doping allegations tend to bring a large amount of ill-repute towards any professional athlete when they are at the center of such serious controversies like in the case of world-renowned cyclist Lance Armstrong and USA athlete Marion Jones. While dealing with such sensitive issues one can never be too careful to avoid being dragged in false and baseless doping allegations.

Indian weightlifter and 2018 Gold Coast CWG gold medalist Mirabai Chanu has opted to choose the safer route as she has asked the Sports Ministry to put up CCTV cameras at significant public locations such as the training and dining halls as well as other areas where outsiders are allowed in order to avoid a situation of any untoward allegation.

Chanu has also requested the Sports Ministry to install CCTV cameras in her room at the national camp as she feared that her food could be spiked to falsely accuse her in a doping scandal, the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) revealed today.

“We have written to the Sports Authority of India and Sports Ministry to install CCTV cameras at the national camp at NIS Patiala so that we can know what is happening there. We don’t want any doping case from our weightlifters,” IWF Secretary General Sahdev Yadav told PTI.

Mirabai has been put through an astonishing 45 dope tests in the last four years but has come out clean each time.

“Mirabai has also written to the ministry through us to install CCTV cameras inside her room so that she can monitor who comes in and goes out of her room.

“You never know somebody may just come in and put something inside her room or her food or drink while she is at the washroom or somewhere. She does not want to take a chance,” Yadav added.

Chanu is currently training in Thailand for the next three weeks for the upcoming Asian games which will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia from August to September. Chanu and her team will directly travel to Jakarta from Thailand a few days prior to the event so that they can get used to the conditions before the Games.

Meanwhile, Yadav said the Sports Ministry had agreed to install CCTV cameras at the training hall, but will only do so early next month.

“The Ministry has told us that CCTV cameras will be installed at the training hall early next month. The weightlifters are currently training at the SAI Centre at Shilaroo (in Himachal Pradesh).

“They are returning to NIS Patiala on June 3 and we are expecting the CCTVs to be installed at the training hall by then,” he added.