Sikdar lashes out at Sunita Rani

Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, India's lone gold medal winner in athletics at the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games, has called for exemplary punishment for Sunita Rani, who tested positive for a banned substance in the recent Busan Games.

Jyotirmoyee, who won gold medals in the women's 800 metres and 1500 metres at Bangkok, lambasted Rani for sullying India's image and said: "Because of her, some quarters have got the ammunition to question the good performance of the Indian athletes who have returned with a rich haul of medals."

Sikdar, who hails from Ranaghat in West Bengal's Nadia district, observed that never in the history of the Games has any Indian athlete tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.

"Sunita has sullied India's image. As such, the Indian Olympic Association should give her exemplary punishment so that no other sports person ever dares to take recourse to such unethical means," she said.

Rani, who won a gold medal in the women's 1500 metres, setting a new Asian Games record, and a bronze medal in the 5000 metres, tested positive for nandronlone and was stripped of her medals by the Olympic Council of Asia.

Sikdar also said Rani's claim of foul-play in the results of the dope tests does not hold water as no other athlete from India had tested positive.

"Why should she be singled out when there were so many other medal winners from our country?" Sikdar asked.