Monika Devi tests positive for banned substance… Monika claiming innocence (weightlifter in tears – it was pretty ironical)… Monika claiming it was to get Shailaja Pujara in… Monika cleared of the charges (how does that happen?)… But it seems it’s too late and her name is already withdrawn from Beijing Olympics…
Frankly, the whole thing smells of rat, stinks... stinks big time. The timing was perfect. An announcement on a sample taken on June 6th! An announcement made at such a time that even if it turns out be wrong, it would be too late for Monika to take part. Though it’s all circumstantial and I might be completely wrong here, I think Monika played spoilsport by going to the media and making very direct statements and thus foiling the chances of Shailaja.
I saw this very funny interview given by Shailaja which was given in Telugu. The subtitles read something like this – “I have been told that I am not selected for Beijing. The only way I can go is if Monika falls ill or is caught of doping.” Dunno whether it was before or after the Monika doping news came out but hello! “caught of doping”… who says such a thing? Well she missed couple of options like “Monika running away with an Iraqi weightlifter”… I suspect Shailaja is a bit naïve but there are others who are not!!
In any case, what are we fighting for exactly? Of all the news items I have read or seen, I did not see any which even remotely mentioned that we lost a medal. While I am no authority on this subject (in fact I had not even heard of Monika or Shailaja before this controversy), I am kind of sure Monika was not even close to getting a medal…
Isn't it “politics of nothing”??
Btw, Anup Sridhar won the first round today pretty easily... Lets wish him all the best!
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Sunday, August 10, 2008
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Phew!! these news tabloids are too complicated to understand...maybe we should leave all these aside and focus on cheering the "active" Team India for a great success at Olympics - the team already achieved 1 Gold today
ReplyDeleteWelcome back Uday...
ReplyDeleteI guess Chinese are no better than Sailaja. The recent issue related to age of the gymnast is hilarious and raises serious doubts on the Olympic institution especially in the two friendly neighbors.
Monika's case was one extreme, Abhinav's case is a different story but pointing to the same shameful state of affairs. If he could not afford a firing range in his home, he could not have done it. Think about this - each round of fire he practices would be more than a week's wage for a common man.
With politics deciding, who goes and plays, with a set of two officials per player in the contingent, i guess we are a long way to be a serious olympics contingent. It is just a ritual that happens every four years and a set of influential players and super influential officials get a months paid vacation abroad.
as a democratic country, how about if India "votes" to include chess in the olympics.. likely our best bet at any medals! and, we should have 20 variations of the game included, just like swimming variations!! we'll thrash them all and top the medals chart!
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