Hope for Manju
Head of the Sports Ministry Medical Unit Dr Geethanjana Mendis is confident that disgraced Commonwealth Games boxing gold medallist Manju Wanniarachchi can be proved innocent and that he would be able to retain his medal he won beating Welshman Sean McGoldrick in the bantam weight final at New Delhi.
Dr. Mendis told The Nation that his medical team could prove Wanniarachchi is innocent despite the boxer been tested positive for the drug.
“My team would perform every possible act to protect Wanniarachchi from further humiliation and to retain his gold medal which brought a great amount of honour and pride to the whole nation,” said Dr Mendis.
He also said they have appointed a three-member committee headed by Dr Maiya Gunasekera to conduct an initial inquiry in addition to two other inquires which are to be conducted by the ABA and the Sri Lanka Police. Dr Rohini Fernandopulle and Dr Chandima Wijeratne are the two members with Dr Gunasekara who comprise the inquiry panel.
Dr Mendis recalled some previous incident involving Sri Lankan athletes. Sprint queen Susanthika Jayasinghe also experienced a similar situation and overcame it during her illustrious career. He also pointed out that in his view it was rather unnecessary for Wanniarachchi to consult a private doctor in Kurunegala. “As international sportsmen and sportswomen they should always follow the guidelines of the Sports Medical Unit.”
Wanniarachchi who won gold in the bantamweight division in New Delhi was confirmed as the fifth athlete to fail a doping test during the recently concluded Commonwealth Games.
The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) official statement said that the ‘A’ urine sample of Wanniarachchihad a Norandrosterone count of 19, a prohibited Anabolic Agent under the World Antidoping Agency (WADA) list of prohibited substance and methods.
All Sri Lankans were shocked at this news when the National Olympic Committee (NOC) President Hemasiri Fernando brought it to the notice of the national body for boxing the Amateur Boxing Association (ABA) on October 22. The special Committee comprising NOC President, ABA President DIG (Rtd) Rohan Abeywardena, Dr Seevali Jayawickrama and Dian Gomes (Boxing manager to the CWG) and Wanniarachchi were present at this special meeting. However Wanniarachchi sincerely and categorically denied having taken any such drug. He also reminded the committee that he had competed in two International meets during the year including the Commonwealth Championship in Delhi where he won a silver medal just a few months ago.
However in accordance with the CGF Anti Doping Standard (ADS) Wanniarachchi has been notified of the finding through the Sri Lankan Commonwealth Games Association. Wanniarachchi now has until November 4 to respond to the finding after which the formal hearing process will commence.
Sport Ministry Secretary S. Liyanagama said, “Wanniarachci is expected to go to New Delhi and examine his ‘B’ urine sample on November 2 at the New Delhi Anti Doping Commissioner’s office. He will be accompanied by Dr Lal Ekanayake, Lawyer Kalinga Indratissa and ABA Secretary Colonel Hemantha Weerasinghe.”
If his ‘B’ test also proves positive Wanniarachchi will face a two-year ban and will be stripped of his gold medal.
NOC chief Hemasiri Fernando said, “Wanniarachchi may have unknowingly taken the banned steroid when he consulted a physician several months ago. If that is indeed the case, we will plead for a lenient punishment. We have taken his medal into our custody pending the completion of inquiries.
“At the moment my part is over and from this stage onwards the Sports Ministry and Sports Medical Unit have to handle the inquires. I have also informed this to President Mahinda Rajapaksa.”
The NOC president also pointed out that the Anti Doping knowledge amongst our athletes is very low and that it should be developed through the Sports Medical Unit.
“We at the NOC tried to develop this but the Sports Medical Unit was not willing to come forward and work with us. Both of us have to join hands in this matter. It is very important that we protect our athletes,” said Fernando.
ABA President Rohan Abeywardena said, “Having understood that the particular drug in question cannot be taken orally and had to be administered via injection we contacted Dr Ananda Mudannayake, the doctor who administered the drug on Manju. Mudannayake admitted that he has been treating Manju as well as other renowned athletes in the country.
“However during the telephone conversation Mudannayake had with Dr Seevali Jayawickrama, he had made a number of contradictory statements (including his qualifications) and had failed to be convincing in his explanations. Therefore a police entry was made in Kurunegala on Dr Mudannayake’s involvement as a doctor by Manju and the President of ABA,” he said.
Wanniarachchi’s Manager Dian Gomes said that this was the first time an athlete had pointed a finger at the doctor. “Earlier any athlete who had suffered a similar fate as Manju had failed to accuse the doctor. Manju clearly stated that he got the Vitamin ‘B’ injection from this doctor. We knew that some boxers and even several national athletes were seeking treatment from this doctor. So we took adequate measures to educate the doctor by sending coach Harsha Kumara and ABA treasurer Ruwan Keragala to meet him and educate him on international doping regulations. The doctor was given a copy of WADA anti doping regulations too.” Gomes said that Wanniarachchi was completely unaware that the drug given by the doctor was a banned steroid and that the boxer had already lodged a complaint against the doctor with the police.
Courtesy: The Nation
Latest Headlines in Sri Lanka
- Professor Gomika Udugamasooriya appointed Senior Advisor to President on Science and Technology November 22, 2024
- Lohan Ratwatte’s wife further remanded until December 2, 2024 November 22, 2024
- Excavation begins near Veyangoda to uncover reported treasure November 22, 2024
- Thai vets plan to trim tusks of Muthu Raja, elephant repatriated from Sri Lanka November 22, 2024
- Sri Lanka to provide fuel-efficient vehicles for MPs to cut tax waste November 22, 2024
It is now reported that the so-called doctor is a quack with a dubious diploma in homeopathy posing as a qualified medical doctor. I am surprise that several atheletes have travelled all the way to Kurunegala to have special ‘Vitamin B injections’ from this quack. Why travel to Kurunegala when you can get vitmin B jabs free from your own Sports Ministry doctor who is specialised in sports medicine? I am also surprised that Manju’s team managers failed to check out the qualifications of this quack, and also failed to advise Manju to take treatment from the Sports Ministry doctor, to be on the safe side. The Team Manager claims the quack had been educated on international anti-doping regulations and banned substances. What a lame excuse! They have failed Manju and the country to protect him and other athletes from being injected with Nandrolone. The fact that several athletes visit this quack all the way in Kurunegala for ‘special injections’ seems to be evidence that they visit him because he was able to provide them with Nandrolone injections.
Anyway, let’s hope the sample B will be negative for Nandrolone or any other banned substance. If it is positive I think the team managers are equally to blame and a full investigation should be held to expose the culture of cheating in our sports if there is one. We cannot go forward without this full investigation and management plan for the future of our sports.
Dear Nicholas, Congratulations on your excellence in bagging everyone.
This incident demonstrates a national trait in Sri Lanka. The vulnerables in society (Tamils in the north, east and up-country) have been cheated by the southern sinhala centric leadership for more than 6 decades since independance.
C’mon, Mr Nicholas, find strength in accepting your weakness and acting upon it.
How wrong DC is to conclude that cheating is a “…national trait in SL”! He goes on to surmise that Southern Sinhala leadership had cheated the SL Tamils in the North and East, and the Indian Tamils, brought in by the British imperialists in 19th C to work in their tea estates. I suppose he considers VP and his barbaric terrorist outfit were honest brokers who treated all the Tamils equally and did not cheat them in any way. I suppose he considers that for 30 long years, under the jackboot of the LTTE, the Tamils in North, East and up-country enjoyed unrivalled peace and prosperity. When VP’s children were enjoying a comfortable life most Tamil children in North and East lived in constant fear of being abducted by LTTE to serve VP as cadres and black tigers for suicide missions. VP cheated them of their childhood and right to a proper education and bright prospects in life. The parents of these children soon smuggled them out of the country to the West to save them from the evil clutches of VP and the barbaric LTTE. DC seems to have a memory problem. Because he is an extreme Tamil nationalist he is unable to see and think clearly without impaired judgement. His judgement is clouded by his hatred for the Sinhalese and perceived injustices. Trouble with DC is he is generalising. He sees only in black and white. He generalises all Tamils are good, while all Sinhalese are bad. How many Tamil innocent children has VP cheated of a bright future and sent them to an early grave in trying to achieve the impossible. He was an egoistic man who lived his life in pipe-dreams of building an empire for the Tamil nation in a conglomeration of SL with Tamil Nadu by force. He sacrificed the young budding lives of thousands of innocent Tamil children for a dubious cause. He cheated their parents of their children who wuld have cared for them in their old age. Today SL government will care for them.
SO DC, if you want to talk about cheating, open your eyes and see clearly how VP cheated his own people in leading them to disaster. The Sinhalese government of MR is at last trying to bring to the liberated people of North and East a better quality of life and a bright future. MR is not cheating them. They are already enjoying the fruits of a better future for themselves and their children, without the constant fear of the LTTE, and the raids on their children to be abducted for LTTE training to be gun-fodder.
Thank you Nicholas, keep on bagging.
Leave the “Late” VP alone; according to you he is dead and gone anyway. I am not referring to character traits of individuals; I was referring to character traits in communities.
I read on the web about a community in the northern outer suburbs of Paris, intending to erect a statue for the Late Mr Tamil Chelvan. Mr TC was dubbed “Peace Dove” by the “now deceased” leader. Mr TC had a great understanding of issues faced by the tamil community; the depth of his understanding exceeded that the the high profiled Late Mr Balasingham. Mr TC was given the task of representing the tamil community at face-to-face negotiations with the Sinhala Community.
Unfortunately, the negotiations never took off. The environment necessary for negotiations was never created. For example, prior to embarking on a face-to-face meet, the Sinhala politicians sang the swan song that the “LTTE is never intersted in peace”. An able negotiator will create an environment of trust and confidence to enable sincere exchange.
Comimg back to the statue, we see a hero being rewarded by a community. How does this compare with the Sinhala community rewarding its heroes by confining him in sackcloth in a 6X8 cell?
Mr Nicholas, what we (as Sri Lankans) require is an opening of our hearts and soul searching for negative traits. Once we embrace openness and positivity, we can attain peace. Yes, we can.
Dear Demala Chelvan,
Could you please explain how this article is related to tamils (or even Sinhalese for that matter)?
I am confused as to whether you are confused, or is it simply the tamil racism roaming in your small head?
Dear Manjula,
A sportsman who became a “National Hero” by fraudulently winning a gold medal is being protected and actions justified by the social system.
There’s blame being mercilessly thrown at innocents; there blame being thrown at stakeholders.
When you are a leader in activity of your choice (sports in this instance) you are responsible building an environment that will support achievement.
Drugs in sport is a malaise in society and the responsibility for learning and education lies with the sportsman to ensure fair competition.
Likewise, if you want to be a true social leader (as a politician) you should become aware of social strengths, weknessess and starits and offer your intellect to cure society of ailments and provide a path for enlightened livelihood.
Society in Sri Lanka and its leaders are pretty backward in this regard. I have been attempting to draw parallells between the behaviour of this sportsman and his cotterie and the behaviours and attitudes of society as a whole.
Had this sportsman stood up with courage and said ” Sorry, people, I erred and I am giving up my rewards and from today, I shall dedicate myself to fairness”, he would won the biggest gold medal of all and that is known as HONESTY.
As usual DC is dishing out a lot of drivel. He launches into one diatribe or another with the same theme. That is to ridicule the Sinhalese and the Sinhalese politicians as being ‘backward’ and ‘cheats’. I suppose TNA are all highly educated intellectuals! I suppose they are all pure as driven snow! I am afraid DC has got his vetti in a twist. It is being undone slowly for all to behold him in all his glory.
DC is a bigot, a fantic, a Tamil extremist nationalist demanding homerule for 4 million Tamils who do not even want it. They want to be remain citizens of one undivided Sri Lanka to learn Sinhalese and Sihalese culture. DC and his insignificant coterie of die-hard Tamil nationalists are lonely figures crying in the desert. VP was expelled from the school at age 15. The Tamil politician and his wife who sheltered him and fed him with the stupid notions of Tamil nationalism was eventually murdered by VP as he thought this man was too moderate. He killed most of the other Tamil leaders in politics and society as he elected himself the sole voice of Tamil eelam. Such was his ego! He became a murderer and a monster. He was joined by other such psychopaths to carry out genocide. He conscripted children into his ragamuffin mob for an insurrection. He became a barbaric war criminal. Norway was SL enemy as they funded this war criminal. Norway is therefore equally guilty of war crimes. Norway should be brought before the Hague for war crimes. Norway should be made to pay billions of US dollars in compensation for 30 years of economic set-back of our island nation and for the deaths and destruction. All assets of LTTE should seized by SL, all round the world. It is this psychopath that the bigot DC is defending. Like all bigots and fanatics DC is blinkered and blind to the truth. He is one-track-minded. There is little point in trying to convince him he is wrong. Jesus said, ‘Don’t throw pearls before swine’.
VP is dead. He is setthapochchi. DC is unable to accept it and deluding himself it is a canard of the GOSL. VP’s ashes were thrown into the sea. The fish who ate it died. They died from C4 poisoning. TC, Balasingham, Soosai, Pottu Amman are all history. Worms ate their bodies. Guess what? The worms died too, poisoned by gunpowder.
4 million ordinary SL Tamils want no more TNA politics in their lives. They want to be left alone to lead a normal life, caring for their families to lead happy prosperous lives as SL citizens. This was denied them by the biggest cheat and liar, VP. He cheated them of their children who were sent to an early grave, trying to realize VP’s pipe-dream. DC you can dream on. You can send your children also to an early grave under TNA if they were to start another insurrection.
You boast of a ‘statue’ built for TC in the private back garden of a Tamil coolie in Paris. It is just a small bust made of clay. His face seems to be contorted in pain as if he is constipated and trying to force himself to shit, thatamanava. You can build a million such busts for all the other British coolies who were liquidated along with VP. You can build them in the moon for all we care along with your own bust. You can even declare the moon your Tamil eelam kingdom. Who cares? The whole lot of you can settle in the moon for all we care. Good riddance!
A tamil in Canada is on trial for the attempted murder of his daughter and boyfriend, who is a low-caste Tamil. In your Tamil eelam kingdom would the Tamil caste system continue? Would you be at each others throats then?
Dear Demala Selvan,
You still didn’t explain how this article is linked to tamil or sinhala racism.
I am asking because you straightaway started bagging Sinhalese people in your first comment to this article.
Did you make a mistake? If so, you may show us that you are also “Honest” as you preach to Manju here and admit that you inadvertently had racist comments for no reason and you may be more “honest” if you appologise to the readers who were offended by your racist remarks.
Dear Mr Dias,
Thank you for your valuable contribution. If I attempt to list all the assumptions in there, I will probabaly spend the rest of the day doing so.
Thank you for calling me names too.
In the end, I think I have won. I have been attempting to demonstrate character traits in Sri Lankan communities. I think I have hit the nail so hard on your head that it hurting your conscience.
As said earlier, according to you VP is dead and so is the LTTE. So be it.
I will struggle for heroes to be honoured and not incarcerated by a kleptocratic state.
I will struggle for the rights of all peoples.
I will struggle for honesty.
I will struggle for sound human values.
Dear Manju,
Apologies; you missed the point.
I am not interested in “racism” if such a thing exists. My focus is on community character traits in Sri Lanka.
Cheating is one of them.
Dear Demala Selvan,
Appology accepted. But I didn’t miss the point.
You said “…… The vulnerables in society (Tamils in the north, east and up-country) have been cheated by the southern sinhala centric leadership for more than 6 decades since independance.”
There I didn’t miss your point of trying to raise the cheap racism shot in your comment on a Sri Lankan (not tamil or sinhalese to me) boxer’s “alledged” (and “alledged only at this point) doping incident.
It is a dirty try to sling mud at Sinhalese people (politicians) in south. To me it is totally unrelated and a shameless try to further divide Sinhalese and Tamils.
I don’t take it as a noble act or comment in attempting to get the two communities together. It needs a lot os skills and talents, I know, not everybody has such talents and skills.
I am stating facts when I say DC is a blinkered Tamil racist, a bigotted Tamil nationalist. This is not name calling. Without evidence DC generalises that all Sinhalese are ‘cheats’. He brushes every Sinhalese man and woman with the same tar brush, that cheating is a ‘national trait’. This is unfortunately racist attitude in him. He distorts facts to paint a different picture to the world about Sri Lanka and the majority Sinhalese population as cheats. This is wild propaganda of the Tamil eelamists all over the diaspora who are continually feeding on such racist propaganda drivel dished out by the Tamilnet as daily food for the Tamil eelamist consumption, and then vomit it out for the world to consume. It is a self-projection.
He has ignored the fact that the biggest cheat and liar is VP who along with the other bigotted psychopaths lied and cheated his own Tamil community in SL. They were deprived by him of thousands of Tamil children who were sent to an early grave, in a useless militant campaign to realize his pipe-dream of Tamil eelam. All these psychopathic war criminals are now history. DC can take-up the struggle for Tamil eelam where the psychopaths left-off, but we will terminate him too and his genocidal ilk if they dare to come bearing arms. “Eelamayata thitha”.
I wonder what DC has to say about the reported incident in Canada when a ‘high caste’ Tamil tried to kill his own daughter for associating with a ‘low-caste’ Tamil man. This caste discrimination is strongly prevalent among Tamils even after they have buggered-off to the West. I suggest DC start a caste struggle initially to emancipate the ‘low-caste’ Tamils from this discrimination by ‘high-caste’ Tamils, before he struggles to establish a so-called Tamil eelam. I do not know what he meant by ‘kleptocratic state’. All the grabbing was done by the psychopath war criminal VP and his other war criminal psychopathic associates from the muslims and the Sinhalese who lived peacefully for generations in the North and the East, during progroms of genocide.
DC you said,
“I will struggle for rights of all peoples”
“I will struggle for sound human values”
How about first struggling for Rights of ‘low-caste’ Tamils in SL against cras discrimination by ‘high-caste’ Tamils?
Are you blind, deaf and dumb to this huge problem in the Tamil community?
To begin with you could denounce openly the attempted murder by the ‘high-caste’ Tamil man in Canada of his daughter and ‘low-caste’ boy friend by running them over by his car, and then not withstanding, chasing him down the road to kill him shouting blue murder.
Do you support this Tamil man’s behaviour or do you condone it? Come on, be frank.
You said, “I will struggle for honesty”.
How about some honesty at home? If you are honest you will strongly denounce this attempted murder by a Tamil father of his daughter, and admit caste discrimination is a huge problem among Tamils, especially in Jaffna and Baticaloa; so much so young couples are not free to marry partners of their choice because of caste dicrimination, and Tamils are discriminated by other Tamils in the job front also.
So please don’t play the innocent victim role to denounce the Sinhalese of racism when the biggest racists are VP and his psychopath Tamil nationalists who committed such gruesome genocide, by dashing the heads Sinhalese infants on rocks and hanging the beheaded heads of Sinhalese women by their hair from branches of trees. I suppose this champion of human rights and denouncer of war crimes and crimes against humanity looks the other way when it comes to genocide by his ‘hero’ VP.
I suggest DC you practise what you preach, and don’t try to find a speck of dust in your brother’s eye when there is a whole lump of rock sticking out of your own eye.