The Shewdas doping issue: Why the deafening silence?

Jan 09, 2014 Sports

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By Rawle Welch
Now that the revelation of powerlifter Gumendra Shewdas’s positive test for banned stimulants has reached the public domain, one would have thought that a more detailed and serious disclosure would have emanated from the local governing body, given that it had no less than two months to do so.

The prolonged silence, or lack of meaningful representation of the facts as presented, must be construed as deliberate and an attempt to sweep under the carpet, Shewdas’ monumental transgression after becoming what is more than likely the first person from these shores to be labeled a drug cheat.
It would be interesting to know at what stage of the process the Guyana Amateur Powerlifting Federation (GAPF), or its President Peter Green, received correspondence of Shewdas’s positive drug test, as it must be noted that the athlete’s ban became effective since October 21 last, while most Guyanese, if not all, only knew of the offence two months later.
The question to be asked therefore is: why there wasn’t an official disclosure earlier of Shewdas’s violation or was there an attempt to hide the findings of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)? To make the disclosure to this nation two months after the ban became effective was/is bound to raise suspicions.
There must have been correspondence flying back and forth on Shewdas’s status as it relates to the tests by the WADA, so it is highly unlikely that the local governing body would not have been duly apprised of the situation.
Why did the authorities/administrators here wait so long to make such an important announcement?
Was it that Green was somehow hoping that many Guyanese would not notice the information on the internet or was it due to the pressure felt after Shewdas was showered with the many accolades after returning home with the gold medal and a fair degree of world renown in the sport?
Only Green has the answers to the above questions, and he may also be privy to the facts as to who, if not Shewdas, was responsible for the young lifter’s reported resorting to the use of performance-enhancing drug (s), and if there will be a thorough investigation by the GAPF, Ministry of Sport or even the President of the Cooperative Republic. Yes, it is that serious!
It will be remiss of me if I don’t remind the readership of some of the interventions that the Government of Jamaica led by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller made when several of their athletes were tested positive last year.
It included boosting anti-doping initiatives in addition to the proposed introduction of testing programmes from the high school level among others.
Simpson Miller’s involvement was a direct result of the effect such a scandal could have on the nation’s branding which it generated through sports.
Minister Frank Anthony’s skeletal exertion to explain the way forward might have been avoided had the Ministry been more proactive in taking the lead in the development of sports rather than offering piecemeal assistance.
The Minister’s pronouncement of the existence of an anti-doping committee in Guyana for some time now must be news for many sporting organizations, and this is because he would be hard-pressed to provide details of any sort about the committee’s workings or if it had conducted any tests on local athletes heading into regional or international competitions.
The continued absence of seriousness about the welfare and well-being of our athletes, along with the educational deficiencies in our sports administrators due to the uncaring attitude of those in authority has borne fruit, but sadly not the ones that are fit for human consumption.
The shocking disclosure has created an ineradicable mark not only on Shewdas, the Ministry of Sport and the Guyana Amateur Powerlifting Federation, but the country as a whole, and this is why many are exasperated by the matter-of-fact and trivializing manner in which the issue is being treated.
This development in a responsible society would/should elicit a major reaction among all stakeholders in sport with immediate effect, as well as a serious engagement between all the administrators in all disciplines that represent the country internationally. Shewdas’s failed attempt to cheat, which was subsequently uncovered by none other than the World Anti-Doping Agency, has put Guyana notoriously on the wrong side of the sporting landscape, and no doubt means that all our athletes from now on will be subjected to intense scrutiny.
The Ministry of Sport, the National Sports Commission, the Guyana Olympic Association and the GAPF, among others, should all see this as an opportunity to work together in an attempt to stop the bleeding from what is being treated as a small wound before it becomes a gaping hole that could further embarrass this nation.
Just remember, if administrators continue to keep athletes unaware of what they must not put in their bodies, then the consequences for them (athletes) and Guyana are dire, because come January  2015, athletes found guilty of doping will be banned for a minimum of four years and forced to miss at least one Olympic Games, even as a first offender. The WADA passed that ruling last November at a Meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, as they aim to get tougher on drug cheats.
There is no time for a ‘drag your feet’ position, but rather a ‘down to business’ approach by the relevant stakeholders before Guyana is disgraced once again.  We have ample warning.

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