4 wrestlers,athlete fail pre-Games dope tests
Congress president Sonia Gandhi with party leaders after submitting her nomination papers for re-election in New Delhi on Thursd
Two sports federations — wrestling and athletics — have caused India major embarassment after six wrestlers and two athletes failed dope tests conducted by the National Anti-Doping Agency recently. Of the eight, four wrestlers and an athlete were part of the Indian squad for the Commonwealth Games, including Arjuna Award-winning wrestler Rajiv Tomar.
The Wrestling Federation of India swiftly replaced all four wrestlers in the CWG squad, while the Athletics Federation of India has provisionally suspended both athletes.
“We conducted regular dope tests on the CWG core group. The results that came back from the National Dope Testing Lab (NDTL) yesterday showed six wrestlers and two athletes tested positive. We immediately informed both federations,” Nada director-general Rahul Bhatnagar said on Thursday. “Under World Anti-Doping Agency rules, all those who tested positive have been provisionally suspended. This means that those part of the Indian squad for the CWG have to be replaced,” he added.
Sumit (74kg), Mausam Khatri (96kg) and Tomar (120kg), who were earlier named for the October 3-14 Games squad in the men’s freestyle, and Gursharanpreet Kaur (women’s 72kg), along with two athletes Saurav Vij (shot put) and Akash Antil (discus), tested positive for methyl hexa neamine, a non-specified substance. Vij is part of the 92-strong CWG athletics squad and was due to take part in the shot put event with national champion Om Prakash.
Narsingh Pancham Yadav (74kg), Anil Mann (96kg), Praveen (120kg) — men’s freestyle — and woman wrestler Anshu Tomar (72kg) have been named as replacements.
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