AFI conducting frequent raids at National camps, says Adille Sumariwalla

Indian athletics faces doping crisis ahead of Olympics, with top athletes suspended and tough measures implemented for clean sport.

With the Olympics about a hundred days away, there is a rush to make the cut for Paris by hook or by crook.

Just a couple of days ago news came in that a top thrower, a former Asian Games champion, had tested positive for Clomifene (a drug used to treat infertility in women), a specified substance that the World Anti-Doping Agency says is prohibited at all times. Around that time, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) put out a new list of athletes who have been provisionally suspended for apparent anti-doping violation.

The list included young 3000m steeple chaser Mohammed Nur Hasan, who many felt would take over from Asian Games champion Avinash Sable, 2019 Asian 10,000m silver medallist Murli Gavit, cross-country National men’s champion Hemraj Gurjar and women’s silver medallist Anjali Kumari (the last two competed in the recent cross-country Worlds in Belgrade). Early this year, leading shot putter Karanveer Singh was punished with a four-year ban by Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel.

A few months ago 23 athletes from various sports disciplines were expelled from the JSW’s Inspire Institute of Sport in Ballari, a centre where some of the country’s top athletics stars train. Another bunch was thrown out from another leading Mumbai-based centre.

The doping scene in Indian athletics appears to be getting out of control but Adille Sumariwalla said that tough decisions are being taken to clean up the sport.

“We are conducting frequent raids and increased testing. We have to take tough decisions...it may not look good but this is the only way,” said Sumariwalla, the Athletics Federation of India president, in a chat with The Hindu from Mumbai on Monday.

“We talk to NADA every two weeks...we give intelligence (information) ...the more we test, the more we catch.” But he also made it clear that despite the frequent raids nobody was expelled from the national camps in the last three months. Sumariwalla also revealed that the former Asian Games champion thrower, who had tested positive in an out-of-competition test taken in February, was under treatment. “The thrower is taking treatment, was in TUE (therapeutic use exemption) and I am told is not suspended,” he said.