Bangalore: The National Anti-Doping Agency on Tuesday warned athletes and sports persons to be wary of banned drugs, saying they would ultimately be held responsible and not their coaches or others who encourage them to take steroids to boost their performance.
Speaking to the athletes and the huge contingent of hockey coaching campers at the South Centre of Sports Authority of India here, Dr V Jayaraman, Senior Project Manager of NADA, said consumption of banned drugs could reduce "a sports hero to zero."
Jayaraman said there was need to increase awareness among athletes and sports persons about banned substances both by NADA and the World Anti-Doping Agency.
They should be fully aware of the medication they were taking, Jayaraman said, a day after a NADA team led by him conducted raids at the SAI centre and took urine samples from the campers there for testing.
The raid was part of the countrywide crackdown on doping in sports following the recent doping scandal involving eight Indian track and field athletes.
NADA had last week conducted surprise raids at the rooms of campers and coaches at National Institute of Sports Patiala and took urine samples from the trainees there for testing.
Eight track and field athletes tested positive for anabolic steroids in one of the worst doping scandals.
Jayaraman said NADA had taken 8,000 blood samples from various sports persons since 2009 and as many as 200 cases had been booked. Of these, action had been taken in 130 cases.
He said NADA would provide full help to the Sports Authority of India in setting up a testing centre.
Newly-appointed Indian Hockey coach Michael Nobbs of Australia told sportspersons that they shared a large responsibility in ensuring that their future was not affected.
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