TOI Sports

Courier-Mail

Anju Bobby George and fellow Athens 2004 contestants push for medal upgrades

NEW DELHI: It remains a very long shot but India's most decorated medal winner on the world athletic stage, Anju Bobby George , could find her name associated with an Olympic silver medal if efforts to launch an investigation into the results of the 2004 Athens Games long jump event are successful.Anju, India's only athlete to win a medal at the World Track and Field Championships, and her husband Bobby George along with two other female athletes have called for a probe into the event they contested 13 years ago, where they believe they were cheated out of Olympic medals.At the 2004 Games, Anju made the finals and broke the national long jump record with 6.83m, which still stands, ultimately finishing at fifth place. At fourth was Australia's Bronwyn Thompson and behind Anju at sixth was Britain's Jade Johnson All three Russians who won medals in the event - Tatyana Lebedeva, Irina Meleshina and Tatyana Kotova - have since failed drugs tests, prompting Anju, Thompson and Johnson to approach their respective national sports federations to support their cases. According to Bobby George, himself a former sportsman and coach, the trio intends on approaching the International Association of Athletics Federations ( IAAF ) and the International Olympic Committee IOC ).In January, Lebedeva, who won gold in the Athens event, was stripped of the two silver medals she won at Beijing 2008 after retests of her samples found her positive for the steroid turinabol. Athens silver medalist Simagina was given a two-year ban in 2012 after a positive drug test ruled her out of the London Games, and Kotova, who won bronze, was stripped of her 2005 World Championship medal after retesting of her samples in 2013 found she had also used performance-enhancing drugs.Speaking to, Bobby spoke of a widespread cover-up and the IOC's failure to protect clean athletes. "After the disqualification of Kotova in 2013, we were expecting something to come out, but nothing happened. All of these Russians came to form in the Athens Olympics, especially Irina Meleshina who was nowhere in the scene in the lead-up but suddenly she started jumping over 7 meters and went up to 7.22 meters, which was an unbelievable performance. But after that she went nowhere," he said. "Tatyana Lebedeva had a magnificent jump of 7.33m in 2004, but one month after the Olympics her performances went down drastically. Then it spiked again at the Super Track and Field Meet in Yokohama in 2007 where she beat Kotova."Referencing last year's World Anti-Doping Agency-appointed investigation by Professor Richard H McLaren into allegations of manipulation made by a former director of the WADA-accredited laboratory in Moscow, in regards to doping violations during the 2012 Olympics and 2013 Worlds and Winter Olympics, Bobby alleged that the doping racket runs deep."Its a conspiracy. More than 128 samples kept in Russian labs were spoiled after that. The Russian government is also involved in that. There are connections with the Russian mafia, Interpol has made arrests and it was found that money was involved through Singapore," he said. "Like in the case of Lance Armstrong or Marion Jones or BALCO, there are many officials involved. There are members of IAAF and Russians in WADA involved. Unlike the Americans, the Russians will not confess anything," he said.As per the rules, samples of athletes must be preserved for ten years. Despite the samples of the three Russians having been destroyed, Bobby is confident of finding support as he pushes the cause of the three athletes. "I believe there are people sitting in some corner of the world with solid evidence to prove that we have a clear case, and we are confident of getting some advantage. Once it comes to the international media's notice, someone sitting in Australia or England or maybe Russia itself will come forward, I feel."According to Bobby, he and Anju have the support of the AFI and the associations of Australia and Great Britain . "We are in touch with the two athletes, they have confirmed their support and are also confident of the future. The Australian athlete Thompson's former coach Gary Bourne has been very vocal and very bold. He has said he will push the issue at an Athletics Australia conference at the end of this week. Adille Sumariwalla, the AFI President, has been very positive and has assured of his support," said Bobby.The retired Thompson was quoted as telling Brisbane's: "You can't ever give someone back the moment on top of the podium once you've stolen it from them. I have a great life after athletics but would I love to be awarded the gold medal after finishing behind three athletes who have all been shown up as drug cheats? Of course. At this stage, I am hoping Athletics Australia will support the three of us in our legal action to help build a strategy and gather evidence to build our case."Anju, 39, was synonymous with success during her career. In 2003, she became the first Indian athlete to win a medal at the World Championships when she claimed bronze in the long jump. In 2005, she won silver in the long jump at the World Athletics Final, which nine years later was upgraded to gold owing to a failed drugs test by the gold medallist Kotova.