CHENNAI: The road to Olympics is turning out to be a walk of shame for India. Days after Narsingh Yadav and Inderjeet Singh failed dope tests, sprinter Dharambir Singh has become the third Rio-bound athlete to fail a dope test.
While both Athletics Federation of India (AFI) and National Anti-doping Agency (NADA) have officially refused to confirm the identity of the athlete in question, sources within the former told Express that it was Dharambir who has failed the test on a sample taken immediately after he had qualified for Rio, at last month’s Indian Grand Prix in Bengaluru.
“This is not a shocking news for us. We always felt some of the athletes are indulging in such activities and Dharambir’s name was always on the list of suspects because of his past,” commented a senior AFI office-bearer.
Dharambir was earlier stripped of his 100m gold during the National Inter-State Championships in 2012 for evading a mandatory dope test “We haven’t got any information from NADA regarding an athlete being tested positive for doping. I just saw some media reports,” said Manish Kumar, Chief Operating Officer, Athletics Federation of India.
Meanwhile, NADA chief Navin Agarwal revealed that the athlete in question had ingested anabolic steroids. “We have found anabolic steroids in the sample. It is the ‘A’ sample. The athlete was informed three days ago and has requested for his ‘B’ sample as well,” he said.
Dharambir had earlier become the first male sprinter from the country to qualify for the Olympics in 36 years. The 27-year-old Haryana athlete was to leave for Rio on Tuesday, but was told to stay back. If his ‘B’ sample too contains traces of the banned steroid, the runner faces an eight-year ban as this is his second doping offence. It would effectively end his career.