India sacks track coach in doping scandal

India's sports minister on Tuesday sacked the Ukrainian coach of the country's top female 400m runners after six of them tested positive for banned steroids in a major doping scandal. "I have asked for his removal. He has already been removed," Ajay Maken told a news conference in New Delhi, referring to Yuri Ogrodnik, who coached three of the six to gold medals at the Commonwealth and Asian Games last year. Late Monday, one of India's brightest female track stars, Ashwini Akkunji, joined her 4x400m relay team-mates Sini Jose and Mandeep Kaur in failing a drugs test because of traces of a banned anabolic steroid in her urine. Akkunji, Jose and Kaur were part of India's Commonwealth and Asian Games-winning team in New Delhi and Guangzhou, China, last year. Akkunji also took the 400m hurdles Asiad title in a personal best time. The trio are among eight athletes -- six female 400m runners, a female shotputter and a male long-jumper -- who have now failed drugs tests, casting a cloud over Indian athletics and denting the country's Olympic ambitions. All have been provisionally suspended pending the testing of their "B" samples later this week, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) told AFP on Tuesday. "I'm innocent and I'll prove it. I won't let all my years of sweat and blood be tainted," Akkunji was quoted as saying by the Asian Age newspaper. Maken told reporters that he has asked the Sports Authority of India, NADA and the Athletics Federation of India for detailed reports into the circumstances leading to the positive tests and ordered an inquiry by a retired high court judge. "We will catch coaches and officials who were involved, not just athletes," Maken vowed, adding: "We can't be lenient... "The coach says he didn't know that the athletes were taking banned substances then I think he's all the more responsible for what's happened. The coach is supposed to know what they're taking and and tell them what to take." The tests were carried out either at a national training camp in Patiala, in the northern state of Punjab, in the last two months or after a track meeting in the southern city of Bangalore in late June. The athletes have all protested their innocence and blamed contaminated food supplements for the results. They have also claimed that there were not enough doctors to advise them on which supplements to take. India has never won a track medal at the Olympics and the women's 4x400m relay team was seen as the country's biggest hope of a podium finish at next year's Games in London after their Commonwealth and Asiad golds. They had been due to compete in the Asian Championships in Japan later this week. The director-general of NADA, Rahul Bhatnagar, said the fourth member of the women's 4x400m relay team, Manjeet Kaur, had not been tested. Legendary Indian athlete Milkha "The Flying Sikh" Singh, who narrowly missed a bronze in the men's 400m at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, said: "Strict action should be taken against coaches as I think they are the main culprits. "Action should also be taken against (the athletics) federation and doctors," Singh, who won India's first Commonwealth Games track gold in the 400m in Cardiff in 1958, told AFP. "I think the athletes who failed dope tests should be stripped of their medals and cash incentives and awards given to them be taken back. This will be a lesson for others. "My advice to athletes is to win medals through hard work, not through drugs." Singh said he was encouraged that the sports ministry was taking action after a string of positive dope tests among Indian athletes in recent years, particularly in power events such as weightlifting.