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Jan 14, 2014 Sports
By Edison Jefford
The proposed Guyana Amateur Powerlifting Federation (GAPF) domestic investigation into the Gumendra Shewdas doping scandal should take the form of an Independent Inquiry, which is one of the only methods to ascertain the truth behind what is perhaps the biggest embarrassment Guyana has faced in sport in the post-modern period.
An Independent Inquiry is therefore recommended because the local Federation itself should not escape without suitable scrutiny. The investigation should answer a specific set of questions that will expose the individual/individuals and/or organisation/organisations responsible for Shewdas returning a positive test for banned substances.
The tenets and basis of the investigation ought to first and foremost seek to determine the source through which Shewdas came into contact with the banned substances, Methylhexaneamine and Oxilofrine; who administered the drugs, and who authorised the process of its administration for the athlete since they are high-profiled performance enhancing drugs that are expensive.
As such, GAPF should not be exempted from scrutiny, more so given the established propensity of the federation to attempt to mask information. It is only after Kaieteur Sport broke the story of Shewdas’s positive dope test, following the World Youth Championships in August last year, that the GAPF came out with a low-key press conference on the subject when it had knowledge of the matter since October last year or even before.
In all his utterances on the subject thus far, GAPF President, Peter Green has fingered Shewdas’s Coach, Egbert Jackson as a possible source of the illicit performance enhancement drugs, though Shewdas did not name Jackson in his International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) testimony.
Shewdas named his grandfather as the individual who gave him the medicine, Geranium 20 for a nasal congestion. The IPF investigated the medicine and provided a detailed report, which found that Shewdas’s testimony lacks credibility, and as such, invoked a two-year ban on the Guyanese powerlifter.
Being his Coach, it is expected that Jackson will come under inspection, but Green is erring with his refusal to not also subject the individual, who Shewdas named in his IPF testimony, to similar references. Does Green possess information in this matter that is pointing him in the direction of Shewdas’ coach? After all, Green did say that it is his view that Shewdas did not take substances that are prohibited intentionally, so maybe he has information.
The GAPF, Shewdas’s grandfather, Jackson and Shewdas himself should all be the focus of the investigation, which is why it should be an independent forum so that it is transparent and devoid of interference from the Federation. We cannot expect the Federation to investigate itself if it had played a role in how the athletes came into contact with the drugs.
Secondly, Green said in his latest press conference last week that Shewdas is not a ‘drugs cheat’, which made it pellucid that the GAPF President continues to flirt with the severity of this serious subject.
If Shewdas had not cheated, or enhanced his performance through the use of banned substances, he would not have been stripped of his gold medal, banned for two years and GAPF fined $2000 Euros. It is because the IPF has proven that he cheated that those penalties were inflicted and it is because Shewdas himself knows that he cheated that resulted in him waiving his right to have his ‘B’ sample tested as well.
But Green continues an asinine trend of finding excuses and defences for the intricacies of the issue before an investigation has even concluded. His attempt to misguide the nation was further proliferated when, in comments attributed to him, he said that Shewdas’s comparison to the internationally disgraced cyclist, Lance Armstrong is “sad” as if to suggest it is unnecessary.
The nation knows that Shewdas cannot be compared to Armstrong for lots of reasons. Since this writer was the one to make the reference, not comparison, in an earlier article, it is only fair that further basic clarification is offered to alleviate any future misinterpretation.
The reference to Lance Armstrong in a previous article “Shewdas should pay federation’s fine” was in the context of drug cheats in sport returning monies they were given as endorsements and monies they won to their respective sources. Not to draw parallel with the level of sophistication in doping as in the Armstrong case.
But who knows! An Independent Inquiry into the Shewdas doping scandal, the first high-profiled matter for Guyana in the fight against doping in sport, could very well reveal a sophisticated and well-planned conspiracy to achieve glory at any cost.
The world knew that Armstrong was a serial doper, and while it has not been established that the Guyanese powerlifter is similar, the inquiry will make such revelations. The GAPF should get on with an Independent Inquiry since the matter is of national significance and not a trivial matter as Green is attempting to propagate.
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