CWG gold medallist Sanjita in doping net, faces 4year ban
Weightlifter failed test during 2017 World Championships, claims IWLF top boss
NEW DELHI: Indian weightlifting was hit by a fresh doping row after the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) said on its website that K Sanjita Chanu, the women’s 53kg gold medallist at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in April, had tested positive for testosterone, an anabolic steroid.
It wasn’t clear which competition the test had been carried out in, although Sahdev Yadav, general secretary of the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF), said a top lifter had failed a dope test conducted during the World Championships held in the US from November 28 to December 1, 2017. He did not reveal the lifter’s name.
Chanu finished 13th in the 53kg division in the competition.
Chanu, 24, has been provisionally suspended by the world body, and faces a four-year ban if proved guilty when the process is completed. That would also mean being stripped of the medal she won in the Commonwealth Games.
DOPING VIOLATION
“IWF reports that the sample of Ms Sanjita Chanu Khumukcham (IND) has returned an Adverse Analytical Finding for testosterone (S1.1 Anabolic Agents). As a consequence, the athlete is provisionally suspended in view of a potential anti-doping rule violation,” the IWF statement said.
“In any case where it is determined that the athlete did not commit an anti-doping rule violation, the relevant decision will also be published. IWF will not make any further comments on the case until it is closed.”
Yadav said he could not share details “since the B sample (result) is pending.” Athletes give two samples A and B. The A sample test identifies drug usage and the B sample test confirms it. If the B sample test does not confirm the usage, the athlete is cleared.
There is also confusion on why, if the sample was given in December, the result is coming out now, and whether Chanu was eligible to compete in the Commonwealth Games at all.
CWG SHOW
The 24-year-old Manipur lifter set a record by lifting 84kg in snatch and 108kg in clean and jerk (total 192kg) at the CWG.
Following the positive test, she has been expelled from the national camp for the Jakarta Asian Games currently on at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in Shilaroo, Himachal Pradesh.
The positive test is the latest setback for India’s weightlifting federation, which was sus- pended in 2006, and then again in 2009 after its lifters were caught for doping. It will also mean fewer places for India in weightlifting at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
India were also at the centre of violating the strict ‘no needle’ policy at the CWG after syringes were recovered from rooms occupied by their boxers. The boxers were allowed to compete, but the chef de mission was reprimanded. Later, two Indian track and field athletes were sent home after syringes were recovered from their room.
Interestingly, a few days ago, Mirabai Chanu, another weightlifter, requested the Sports Ministry to install CCTV cameras in her room at the national camp as she feared her food could be spiked to implicate her in a doping scandal.