India Jolted as 2 CWG bound athletes fail dope test just before start of CWG 2022
The Indian CWG contingent has been hit with a doping incident just four days before the Commonwealth Games are scheduled to begin, as per reports. Two of the CWG athletes have failed their drug tests and have been tested for banned substances in out-of-competition testing by the National Anti-Doping Agency officials in Pune and Delhi, respectively.
Both have been handed a provisional suspension and have been dropped from the 30-member Para squad for the games. Two of the country’s leading women athletes, on Wednesday, tested positive for doping and have been removed from the 36-member athletics contingent. They are 100m and 4x100m specialist Dhanalakshmi Sekar and triple jumper Aishwarya Babu.
In the recent case, Armyman Aneesh Kumar Surendran Pillai who competes in the men’s shot put the IF1 category, and woman Para Powerlifter Geeta from Haryana also failed the dope test after traces of the prohibited drug were found in their urine samples. While Aneesh’s sample was collected from his training base in Pune. Geeta’s sample was tested at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium during a preparatory camp for the Pyeongtaek World Para Powerlifting Asia Oceania Open Championship in South Korea which was held in June.
Confirming the development, PCI president Deepa Malik told the Times of India “I am shattered to hear the news. I feel sad for the athletes and their unnecessary need to take shortcuts. We will hold our own inquiry into the matter. We are concerned as a federation despite doing so much to create awareness about doping, hosting webinars and personally interacting with the athletes. It gives me immense pain when I hear such a thing. We have a zero-tolerance policy for doping.”
According to sources, Aneesh, who had bagged gold at the World Military Games in October 2019, returned positive for a masking agent after failing to submit a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) certificate for medicines consumed to treat his blood pressure {BP}. In the case of Geeta, her sample revealed the presence of an anabolic steroid.
