Big setback for Indian athletics as leading thrower fails dope test

In the afterglow of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, the news of a prominent Indian thrower failing a dope test for performance enhancing drugs will certainly be a big setback for the Athletics Federation of India's (AFI) road map to building the team for the 2023 season.

The Indian thrower was tested last month by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) during an international exposure tour to the USA, a source familiar with the development said.

The leading thrower failing the dope test was the third major incident of an elite athlete from the national camp testing positive for banned drugs.

India’s 2020 Tokyo Olympian and national record holder in women’s discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur and javelin thrower Shivpal Singh are the others to have failed dope tests. Kamalpreet and Singh have been provisionally suspended, pending a hearing.

MR Poovamma, a dependable and key 4x400m relay runner, is out of action for three months for failing a test.

Positive dope tests kept 3 elite athletes out of Commonwealth Games

In the build-up to the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, Indian athletics officials faced an embarrassing situation as three elite athletes tested positive for performance enhancing drugs and were dropped from the national squad.

S Dhanalakshmi and Jilna VM, members of the women’s 4x100m relay team, were dropped from the Commonwealth Games squad for failing the dope test. Aishwarya B, the national record holder in the women's triple jump, also missed out on the mega-event at Birmingham after testing positive for performance enhancing drugs.

India finished fourth in the medal tally at the Commonwealth Games, coming away with 61 medals, including 22 gold, 16 silver, and 23 bronze medals.

Triple jumpers Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker won gold and silver, respectively, in the men’s triple jump event. National record holder Murali Sreeshankar won silver in the long jump and Tejaswin Shankar settled for bronze in the men’s high jump.

Avinash Sable (men’s 3000m steeplechase), Annu Rani (women’s javelin), Priyanka Goswami (10km race walk), Sandeep Kumar (10km race walk) were other medal winners at the Commonwealth Games.