BANGALORE: Karnataka and India’s modern athletics golden girl Ashwini Chidananda Shetty Akkunji’s fall from grace was faster than her rise to almost instant glory. Akkunji, the Kundapura taluk girl from Udipi district, had won a gold in 400m hurdles and 4x400 m relay in the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games as well before that. But on July 4 this year, there came a bombshell entirely unexpected to blow the rejoicing athletics community off its feet. The long-striding athlete had tested positive for a banned substance. Her B sample also came positive and her Olympic qualification dream was completely shattered. Six other top Indian athletes, quarter-milers Mandeep Kaur, Sini Jose, Mary Tiana Thomas, Priyanka Pawar, Jauna Murmu, and long jumper Harikrishnan Muraleedharan also tested positive.The athletes put up a brave front and maintained that they consumed what their now sacked Russian coach Yuri Ogorodnik had given them as feeds. The coach had asked them to take bottles of Ginseng Kinapi Pil, which were contaminated and contained banned substances. The jury was out today but, in a way, the sentence vindicated the stand of the athletes. All of them were banned for a year but Muraleedharan was slapped with a two-year ban. The athletes were not present when the decision was announced at the National Anti-Doping Agency headquarters in Delhi on Friday. They can appeal against the ban to the NADA appellate panel but their lawyers said that they would assess the judgment before taking a decision on that. NADA panel head Dinesh Dayal announced a reduced penalty period as the athletes were not found guilty of intentionally taking the banned substances. The maximum suspension stands at two years for first-time violators.
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