India’s war against doping sees more than 150 test positive in 2024 and face sanctions

For the second year running, the count of Indian athletes serving ineligibility periods for doping offences will cross the 100 mark, leaving sports fans to lament the dismal state of affairs and also appreciate the work done by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) in bringing these athletes to book. The latest lists released by NADA reveal that 50 athletes have admitted guilt and secured reduced sanctions and 22 have been sanctioned ineligibility periods by National Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panels (ADDP).  The total of 72 will go up significantly when the cases of 116 athletes who have been placed on provisional suspensions  for alleged anti-doping rule violations find resolution.

These 116 can either opt for early admission of guilt and agree to a reduced sanction or can attempt to convince ADDPs that they are not at significant fault, if not at fault at all. Unlike in the United States of America where a number of athletes who test positive have no cases to answer, most Indian athletes whose samples show up with Adverse Analytical Findings end up facing a ban.

While official audited figures will be released by World Ant-Doping Agency only in the future, those who have compiled details of Anti-Doping Rule Violations made public by NADA over time have computed that 90 agreed sanctions and 79 bans imposed by ADDPs due to Anti-Doping Rule Violations in 2023. There are at least a dozen cases pending resolution from last year.

NADA posted a list of ineligible athletes including 182 who are currently serving time under the Case Resolution Agreement under Article 10.8 & 8.3 of NADA Anti-Doping Rule 2021, 177 who have been sanctioned by ADDPs and 116 who have been placed on provisional suspension by NADA. This is a total of 476 athletes who cannot take part in any sporting activity.

Curiously, the lists do not include Para Badminton star Pramod Bhagat, Para Powerlifters Sudhir and Sachin Chaudhary and Equestrian’s endurance athlete Jalam Singh Inder Singh who have been banned by their respective international federations. The names of track and field athletes Murlikumar Gavit, Rozi and Upendra Pal are missing from those serving Agreed Sanctions.

Some suspensions pique more than cursory interest. For example, Railway athlete Shipra Sarkar has been placed on provisional suspension for competing in 2022 during her four-year period of ineligibility. Now 29 years old, she tested positive for Testosterone in June 2020 and was banned on June 28, 2021. Shipra competed in inter-Railway championships in March and August 2022.

Haryana’s Gunjan, 19, became only the third woman Kabaddi player to cop a doping ban after she tested positive for Mestanolone in the Khelo India Youth Games in Chennai earlier this year. Baljit Kaur (2016) and Sushmita Chaudhary (2021) preceded her in this dubious list. Arya Singh became only the second Automobile Sports athlete after Mrinalini Singh to be penalised by an ADDP.

Two minor weightlifters have copped six year bans, data posted on the NADA website reveals. In the absence of details including names and dates of birth, it is hard to say if it is one athlete who has been given the extended ban for testing positive for multiple banned substances or if two different athletes have been awarded ineligibility periods on the same day.

Talking of doping among minors, of the 40 new provisional suspensions announced, five are minors. These include two weightlifters and one each from athletics, boxing and canoeing & kayaking. Similarly, there are four minors among the 30 who admitted ADRVs and sought a lighter penalty. And four minors were among 33 new athletes sanctioned ineligibility periods. Rather strangely, it appears as if weightlifter Naitik Jangid has managed two Agreed Sanctions on May 3 and 29 this year. It is not clear if two violations have been bundled as one offence or if there has been a clerical error.