Ten lifters, all medallists at Nationals, suspended for doping

NEW DELHI: In another setback to the country’s anti-doping efforts, 10 national championships medal-winning weightlifters have been provisionally suspended by the National Anti-Doping Agency ( Nada ) after they tested positive for banned substances. Their samples were taken at the Nationals held in Arunachal Pradesh’s Itanagar earlier this year.

What has shocked the Indian sports administrators is that some dope cheats are aged between 18-20 and their urine samples have returned positive for a cocktail of steroids and stimulants.

In a couple of cases, a weightlifter’s sample has revealed the presence of three to four prohibited substances. The development has once again highlighted that doping in Indian weightlifting continues unabated despite attempts by the national federation (IWLF) to control the menace.

In the latest incident, medallist weightlifters who have been caught for doping are: Somnath, Anush, Devisri, Sagar, Mrinmoy Gogoi, Gaurav, Rakhi Purohit, Sheetal Bhati, Sumeet Rajput and Sachin Panwar. Their cases will now be heard by the Nada’s anti-doping disciplinary panel (ADDP). If their ‘B’ samples also return positive, the weightlifters face a ban of up to four years.

Similarly, the IWLF has imposed a three-year ban on at least 10 coaches after their wards had tested positive for banned substances at the last year’s Nationals in Tamil Nadu’s Nagercoil. During the Nagercoil Nationals, a similar number of weightlifters were caught for doping. The coaches engaged in training these dope cheats were banned.

According to sources, the ban period of coaches – who are from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) – will run until 2026. Recently, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) had announced sanctioning and penalising of coaches whose athletes will be caught for doping.