Steroids commonplace in Nepali sport, By: PURUSHOTTAM KATTEL
December 17, 2006
When Rajendra Bhandari, the double gold winner in the 10th South Asian Games, tested positive for doping it caused a storm in the sports fraternity. After all, athlete Bhandari was the first Nepali international player to test positive for a performance enhancing substance.
The incident was such a shock that the National Sports Council (NSC) promptly formed a probe committee under its vice-president Sita Ram Maskey. The probe in its recent report implicated manager of Nepal-German Athletics Development Project Gunter Lange as the chief culprit behind the Bhandari doping incident.
An investigation by The Kathmandu Post, however, uncovered even more shocking news: Use of banned steroids is no big deal in Nepali sports; on the contrary, it's a commonplace and something practiced for long by Nepali sportspersons.
"If you want to know the reality, using steroids is nothing new. I have done it, and many others have done it," a long distance athlete, who has represented Nepal in international events, told thePost but refused to reveal his identity through the newspaper. The athlete is security personnel.
Recalling personal experience, a sprinter said he also used the steroid during the National Games last year when he was partially injured and felt a lack of confidence. "Senior players gave me the idea," he said, adding, "Players basically use it before any tournament to stay fit and self-confident."
Deca Durabolin is the most commonly used steroid in Nepal. It is injected into the blood with a syringe. Introduced in the early 1960s, the drug, which was banned for use by athletes to enhance performance, contains Nardoral Decanoate and Denzyl alcohol oil.
Where do they get these steroids?
The sprinter said it is available at many drug stores in Kathmandu. "I bought it for Rs 223 at Nilam Medical Store," he said.
Nilam Medical Store is located south of Dashrath Stadium, Nepal's major sports complex, and has been selling steroids, without doctor's prescriptions, for years.
When the Post approached Hari Ram Malakar, owner of the store, he admitted selling steroids. "My profession allows me to provide the dose," Malakar said. "You can get Deca Durabolin anywhere in Kathmandu but people point out our store since it is located in front of the stadium."
He, however, said he had not known earlier that the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) has banned the use of Deca Durbolin by sportspersons. The Drugs Management Department has put Deca Durabolin in the 'B' category of drugs that can be sold on doctor's prescription.
Legendary Nepali athlete Gaja Raj Joshi, the only living member of Nepal's four-member Asiad squad in 1951, said even they were given "chocolates" to overcome injuries and boost confidence. "During our time also doctors used to give us a kind of chocolate which would enhance our performance and heal injuries," he said. It was not a problem since he was never caught. But he faced a problem of a different sort: "After consuming those chocolates, we could not perform in bed for at least a week."
Joshi now thinks the "chocolates" must have been some sort of steroid. He is terribly saddened by the Bhandari case. "They [people at the helm] should have prevented it beforehand as snatching away medals won is simply unthinkable," he said.
Besides Gunter, the Maskey committee has also implicated athletics coaches Sushil Narsingh Rana and Narayan Pradhan, and former NSC Member Secretary Kishore Bahadur Singh. The report also made the serious allegation that the German government was researching doping in Nepal through the Nepal-German Athletics Development Project and Gunter gave the substance to Bhandari without the knowledge of the athlete himself. The German Embassy has already contested the report.
