Narsingh Yadav took another step towards competing at the Rio Olympics with the International Wrestling Federation accepting his nomination for the Games acceding to the WFI’s request.
More importantly, the United World Wrestling has also confirmed — according to the WFI — that it would not be appealing against the clean chit given to the wrestler by the anti-doping disciplinary panel which means there is one less agency that can challenge his participation.
The Indian federation president, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, confirmed the development on Wednesday.
“After Narsingh was given a clean chit by NADA, we immediately wrote a letter to the world body to reconsider his name in the 74kg freestyle category at Rio.
“I am happy to confirm that the UWW has reverted accepting our request,” Singh said. The federation added that the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) had already been informed about the decision even though the latter had categorically made it clear that it would go with the WFI’s choice.
“The United World Wrestling (UWW) has permitted Narsingh to participate in all international competitions including the Olympics after carefully going through both the WFI’s request and the NADA ruling,” WFI said.
Narsingh’s hopes could still be dashed by an appeal against the NADA’s verdict by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which has 21 days to do so from the day it receives all the documents pertaining to the case.
WADA has already said it would be reviewing the case but experts believe it was a normal procedure for elite athletes and reviewing a case may not necessarily translate into an appeal.
If WADA does appeal to the ad hoc division of the CAS constituted to render quick decisions, the 26-year old Narsingh may have to wait for a final call. He would also have to undergo another test before getting the all-clear even though the 2015 WADA code does not stipulate a mandatory reinstatement test.
Narsingh was cleared of doping violations after the ADDP accepted his claim that his drink had been spiked by unknown persons.
