CHENNAI: The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) handed a 10-year suspension to javelin thrower Shivpal Singh for a second doping offence after testing positive for the banned substance methandienone. Shivpal had won a silver medal at the 2019 Asian Championships in Doha while throwing his personal best of 86.23m. Later, he qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were held a year later.
In 2021, the athlete's dope sample had tested positive for a steroid in an out-of-competition test. The Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel of NADA, in August 2022, had handed him a four-year ban beginning from 2021, holding him guilty of committing a doping offence.
Shivpal, now 31, had appealed against the sanction and managed to convince the Appeal Panel of the NADA that contaminated supplements were behind his flunked dope test. Accepting his contention, the Appeal Panel, in January 2023, reduced the ban period from four years to just one. He the returned to action in April 2023 and won a bronze at the National Inter-State Championships in Bhubaneswar in June. He also won gold in the 2023 National Games in Goa.
Meanwhile, sprinter MV Jilna too has been provisionally suspended for a second offence after testing positive for mephentermine.
Heptathlete Barman fails dope test
In another instance, India's first Asian Games gold-winning heptathlete Swapna Barman has been provisionally suspended by the NADA after testing positive for a banned substance. The 29-year-old has tested positive for banned anabolic-androgenic steroid Boldenone. Her name figures in the NADA's latest list of provisionally suspended athletes. Barman recently announced her retirement but the disciplinary proceedings will go on. Barman won the gold medal in the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games.
Apart from her, hockey player Mayank Sharma too was banned for four years for failing an out of competition test last year. In addition, 19-year-old runner Sanjana Singh, who won a gold in the women's 1500m and 5000m races in the SAAF Senior Athletics Championships last year, was handed a five-year ban after testing positive for prohibited steroids last year. The duo was already serving provisional suspensions.