Tainted athlete attempts suicide

Athlete Santhi Soundarajan, who was stripped of a silver medal at the Doha Asian Games last year after failing a gender test, on Wednesday attempted suicide by consuming "veterinary medicines".

Police in Thanjavur said Santhi was driven by "lack of recognition" and controversies surrounding her gender after returning the women's 800m silver at Doha, which also resulted in "unemployment and lack of support from the government".

Santhi, who was admitted to a hospital in Pudukottai, was later shifted to the Thanjavur Government Medical College hospital. She is out of danger and no police case has been registered, hospital sources said.

According to the doctors attended on her Santhi had consumed some "veterinary medicines," said Pudukkotai District Superintendent of Police Kapil Kumar C Saratkar.

Santhi, who hails from Kathakurichi village in Pudukottai district in Tamil Nadu, had also won the 1500m gold and the 800m silver at the South Asian Games in Colombo in August last year. Tamil Nadu chief minister had awarded Santhi a cash prize for her Doha Games effort in January this year.

Family sources said that Santhi had consumed pesticide this morning when she was undergoing physical training at Pudukottai.

She developed giddiness and vomited after which her friends took her to hospital, they said.

She was in a state of frustration in the last few days, her friends and relatives said, adding she was not attending training sessions regularly.

She had returned to her native place in Kathakurichi only on Tuesday from Chennai where she is studying, they said.