CHENNAI: An astonishing 30 bodybuilders failed dope tests in April and May, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) revealed in a bulletin on Friday. The revelation comes after this newspaper reported that 60 bodybuilders had failed dope tests so far in 2019, more than double that of the second-highest offender (weightlifting with 26).
Most of the cases revealed on Friday were samples taken from the National Bodybuilding Championships and the Junior National Bodybuilding Championships. This is not the first time that NADA is releasing damning statistics related to the sport. A report that they had released in July, pertaining to tests conducted between April 2018 and March 2019, revealed that an astonishing 44.4 per cent of all bodybuilders tested had failed dope tests.
Satnam on list
Basketball star Satnam Singh Bhamara is among a list of dope offenders released by NADA on Friday. Satnam, the first Indian to be drafted into NBA, has been provisionally suspended from November 11, the agency revealed. It is understood that the sample in question was collected in August 2019 and showed traces of higenamine, a beta-2 agonist. He has not travelled to Kathmandu to participate in the South Asian Games.
The list also includes boxer Neeraj Phogat. NADA revealed that 306 dope tests were taken in November alone. This is up from the 157 tests that were conducted in October. Among the penalties handed out last month is a four-year ban for weightlifter Ravi Kumar and a similar punishment for Jyoti Singh, who won the Delhi half-marathon this year.