Goel all for clean supplements

Sports Minister Vijay Goel on Thursday stressed on the need for increased awareness about doping in the country and in ensuring clean nutritional supplements for the athletes.

Goel said roping in Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will help athletes make informed choices. NADA has taken up the matter with FSSAI due to which an advisory stand is issued by them to the Food Safety Commissioners.

“What we are seeing is that in the name of sports, doping menace is taking place and towards that we have kept the conclave to search for solutions to curb it. We are planning to make guidelines with FSSAI so that they can check along with NADA the anti doping elements in supplements,” Goel said during the conclave on Nutritional supplements in Sport.

“We are also looking to have bigger awareness campaign for both juniors and seniors athletes and for that we need to call upon all the stakeholders. The WADA keep changing its list of banned substances every year, so we also need to regularly update our athletes about that.”

Goel admitted they particularly need to check the supplements which are imported. “We also need to check the import of supplements and ensure they are free of doping substances. We are also thinking if the procurement of supplements could be centralised and if SAI can play a role in it. Since NDTL doesn’t do testing of supplements, we are also mulling whether we should have a separate agency to do the testing. So we are discussing various possibilities.”

On Pakistan's players entry for the forthcoming Asian Athletics Championships, Goel said: “As for AFI calling the Pakistan players, they haven't spoken to me about this. They mainly come to us for tournaments and not about the teams who are participating. But we have Home Ministry and MEA to take the right decision in this regard. All I can say we have to take into account the sentiments of our people. Pakistan cannot be indulging in terrorism and play on our soil.”

Narsingh-Sushil issue

Goel dismissed the apprehensions of suspended wrestler Narsingh Yadav on the appointment of Sushil Kumar as one of 12 national observers as ‘baseless’.

Yadav, who is suspended doping, had questioned how Sushil could be made the national observer as he is grooming wrestlers at his father-in-law's Chhatarsal stadium, “calling it a conflict of interest.”