CHENNAI : There is no respite to India's doping shame. On Wednesday, a host of top athletes figured on the latest list of provisionally suspended athletes. As usual, athletics led the way with some of the international athletes figuring on the charts prepared by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA). And some of them are medallists at the elite level. What is more intriguing and alarming is that a host of minor athletes are on the list.
Mohammed Nur Hasan, once considered as one of the top steeplechase athletes in the country and also a Federation Cup gold winner, figures on the provisionally suspended list. He was part of the team that represented the country at the Asian Championships in Bangkok.
Another Asian Championships medallist, Murli Kumar Gavit, too has been provisionally suspended. Joining him in the list are World Cross Country Championships participants — Hemraj Gurjar and Anjali Kumari.
Long distance runner from Tamil Nadu, G Lakshmanan, was suspended for two years by the Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (ADDP). Sprinter Himani Chandel was handed a four-year ban. Anjali Kumari was second at the National Cross Country Championships in January and was chosen for the Worlds, where she finished 80th.
Gavit had won a bronze medal during the 2019 Asian Championships in Doha and was the gold winner in a strange 5000m race at the National Open Championships last year where no athlete seemed keen to win the race.
All four of them figured in the latest list of athletes handed provisional suspension by the NADA.
(With inputs from agencies)