After doping row, athletics body makes camp a must
NEW DELHI: As Indian athletics grapples with a fresh doping scandal after five top athletes tested positive, Athletics Federation of India (AFI) president Adille Sumariwalla blamed it on their skipping national camps and being out of the national body’s supervision.
Five athletes — Asian women’s 400m champion Nirmala Sheoran, shot-putter Naveen Chikara, discus thrower Sandeep Kumari, middle distance runner Jhuma Khatun and distance runner Sanjivini Jadhav — have tested positive, the federation said.
Sumariwalla said the federation would now on, bar those athletes keeping away from national camps from competing in individual events, to discourage them from taking banned substances.
The AFI chief said that Nirmala Sheoran was excluded from the 4x400m relay teams (mixed and women’s) at the Jakarta Asian Games in 2018 despite being India’s second fastest 400m runner with a personal best of 51.28 secs. Had they included the Haryana athlete, it would have been an embarrassment as “we would have had to return the medals”. He added: “We firmly stick to our policy of not including non-campers in the relay team because we don’t know whether their performance is genuine or not.”
The samples of all five athletes were taken during the June interstate meet held in Guwahati.
We firmly stick to our policy of not including noncampers in relay team because we don’t know whether their performance is genuine or not.
ADILLE SUMARIWALLA, AFI chief
With their A sample having tested positive, they can ask for the B sample to be tested. If found guilty, they face four-year suspension for their first anti-doping violation.
Two other prominent athletes to fail tests before the Asian Games are Naveen Kumar (3000m steeplechase) and Monika Choudhary (1500m).
On plans to keep out noncampers, the AFI president said: “It’s time we bar those individuals who skip the national camp from representing the country in international meets.”
The federation also plans to scrap trials to give opportunity to those who narrowly miss the qualifying mark in domestic competitions.
Nirmala’s urine sample was collected by the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) at Guwahati and returned an adverse finding for a banned substance. It was re-tested at the World Anti Doping Agency-accredited lab in Montreal, which is better equipped to test micro-level dosages.
Haryana’s discus thrower Sandeep Kumari too was under the radar after achieving the Asian Games qualifying mark of 57m by throwing 58.41m.
Sanjivani Jadhav of Maharashtra, who won bronze in women’s 5000m in the 2017 Asian Championships at Bhubaneswar, “failed the test for a masking agent,” an official said.