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| Thursday, 29 July 2004 |
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Of course, he is a veteran in the field with over 40 years experience as a coach and had served overseas for over a decade. Hence, it will be hard to imagine that a coach of such repute would stoop to unethical levels of recommending a performance enhancing drug to a young athlete, who is training under him. Even if the alleged athlete wanted to get a drug, bought from an outside pharmacy, injected, he need not go to the Sports Medicine Unit (SMU) to do so. But the stories doing the athletic circles are contradicting. Even the boy who is alleged to have come to the SMU with a performance enhancing drug, which contained Nandralone, came out with a different story when he faced the media along with the national coach. Originally, the SMU of the Ministry of Sports said a junior national pool athlete came to them with a sample of a banned anabolic steroid and wanted their services to get it injected. But when the doctors found it to be a banned drug, they had questioned the lad, who claimed to be a soldier. When grilled by the SMU doctors on the day he was caught, this athlete had allegedly told that the drug was recommended by his coach. But at the news conference called by the national coach to prove his innocence, sprinter Arjuna Perera said he never made such a statement. Perera said he only stated that he is being coached by De Alwis and the SMU doctors would have probably misunderstood what he said. On the other hand, the lad had gone missing when the drug story was unveiled and the SMU chief, Dr. Geethanjana Mendis sought the assistance of the AASL President Sunil Jayaweera to trace the athlete for an investigation. The SMU said the lad was absconding but Jayaweera said they have no right to produce an athlete who trains at Torrington grounds. There were reasonable doubts after the lad came out with a totally different story. Perera denied that he went missing. He added that there was no abduction or a subsequent brain washing at a camp in Gannoruwa. To the support of de Alwis, it was disclosed that the drug incident happened three months ago and that it was brought up again to eliminate the national coach. De Alwis said he insisted to have dope testing at the Asian Grand Prix as well as the 2004 National Championship. Hence, he said, there are some people who are against him. De Alwis accused the SMU of not taking timely steps to educate athletes on performance enhancing drugs. He also disclosed a serious threat of medical representatives of various pharmaceutical companies coming to the SMU and recommending and marketing various so called stamina building drugs. De Alwis said many parents of his pupils have often cast doubts whether their children were introduced to banned steroids by those medical reps. The Sri Lanka national coach cautioned the drug threat faced in the local track and field arena and said there could be a considerable number of local athletes who rely on drugs to enhance their performance. But on the other hand, there is no necessity for the doctors at the SMU to fabricate a story. They have come out with what they have seen and observed. However, an involvement of an interested third party in the high drama can not be ruled out. Under the circumstances, it is hard to determine who is right and who is wrong. The SMU report is yet to be made public. Only a careful and impartial investigation would revel which party is right. But one thing is for sure, it is not a good trend for Sri Lanka sports. |
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Produced by Lake House |
Sri Lanka's national athletic coach, Lakshman de Alwis finally admitted
that he is the senior national level coach whose name was mentioned to in
the recent drug episode of unknown sprinter Arjuna Perera. But the Sri
Lanka coach categorically denied any connection in it and said the athlete
had taken the drug without his knowledge.
