The highest numbers of dope cheats were caught from the National Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships held in Yamuna Nagar from January 16-18. Eight lifters returned positive for use of anabolic steroid. Simranpreet Kaur from Sangrur, Punjab, who clinched gold in both the Youth and Junior categories competing in the 63kg, is one of them.
In what could be Indian sports biggest doping scandal, National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) has caught 21 weightlifters in the five championships held recently.
A majority of the dope cheats belong to Delhi, Punjab and Haryana. All the 21 lifters have immediately been provisionally suspended pending inquiry by the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF). In case their 'B' samples also tested positive, then they face a four-year ban as per the new World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) ruling for the first-time offenders.
The tests were conducted both out-of-competition and in-competition, and the substances for which the 21 lifters tested positive fall in the non-specified category list of the WADA. The athletes will remain out of action until they are exonerated or the expiry of their suspensions.
The highest numbers of dope cheats were caught from the National Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships held in Yamuna Nagar from January 16-18. Eight lifters returned positive for use of anabolic steroid. Simranpreet Kaur from Sangrur, Punjab, who clinched gold in both the Youth and Junior categories competing in the 63kg, is one of them.
Punjab's Arshdeep Kaur (58kg, silver) and Amritpal Singh (85kg, gold) too tested positive with high level of 17B hydroxymethyl.
The incident has come close on the heels of last month's doping shame that resulted in the provisional suspension of four Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh athletes for testing positive for banned substance at the National Games in Kerala. The names included 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Geeta Rani (Punjab), Harjeet Kaur (Haryana), and Mangte P Kom (Chandigarh). In athletics, hammer thrower KM Rachna (Punjab) also failed dope tests.
Not just this, IWF has, for the first time, also decided to impose a one-year ban pending final outcome on the three federations – Delhi, Punjab and Haryana – for failing to check the dope menace in the recent championships. This would mean that all these three states wouldn't be able to send their entries for the age groups and senior-level weightlifting competitions till the time their suspension is revoked.
IWF has suspended these states citing its rule "that in case of two or more doping violations in a 12-month period in tests conducted by the IWF or NADA, a state federation could be suspended from participating in any activity of the IWF for a period of up to two years".
IWF secretary general Sehdev Yadav said that action would also be taken against coaches of the suspended lifters. "The coaches of the suspended lifters would also be banned for two years and fined heavily for the offence of their wards. Their 'B' sample tests are awaited after the 'A' sample results were revealed to be positive. Their cases will come up before an anti-doping disciplinary panel that will decide the sanctions to be imposed on them," said Yadav on Friday, adding: "This is one of the biggest doping scandal in recent times."
dna has learnt that another bunch of athletes returned positive for banned substance from the All India Inter-University Championships in January in Pathankot that resulted in the suspension of Punjab's Jugraj Singh and Navneet Singh, apart from two other athletes from different states.
Uttar Pradesh's Atul Kumar (representing Railways) and Haryana's Ravish Malik (Delhi National Championships 2012 medallist) have also been caught for their second doping offence and are likely to face suspension for up to eight years.
A total of eight lifters failed including Govind (+94kg), Puja (75kg, bronze) and Parmeet Singh (85kg) from Delhi, failed the dope test for anabolic steroid at the senior-level Rajasthan State Championships and Inter-Railway Championships in January.
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