Discus thrower Kamalpreet gets three-year ban for doping

Will go as per law, says AFI chief Sumariwalla regarding the Olympian’s National record

Discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur, the National record holder who was sixth in last year’s Tokyo Olympics, has been suspended for three years by the Athletics Integrity Unit for failing a dope test.

Kamalpreet was tested out of competition in Patiala on March 7 this year and her urine sample showed the presence of stanozolol, a non-specified substance prohibited at all times by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

That should have brought the 26-year-old a four-year ban but she was given a one-year reduction in the period of ineligibility based on her early admission of the anti-doping rule violation and acceptance of sanction after receiving the notice of charge on September 7.

Her three-year ban began on March 29, 2022 (the date of provisional suspension) and all her results, awards, medals and prize-money from March 7 will be forfeited. That will keep her out of next year’s Asian Games and the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Kamalpreet had made stunning progress in 2021 and in June last year, she bettered her own National record to 66.59m. So will that record be scrapped?

“Will go as per law,” Adille Sumariwalla, the Athletics Federation of India president, told The Hindu.

When her sample was collected on March 7 this year, Kamalpreet had made many disclosures in the doping control form’s declarations section. The AIU notified her about the adverse analytical finding on March 29 and a few days later, the discus thrower wanted the many protein supplements, that she normally consumed, to be analysed at the New Delhi WADA-accredited laboratory. One of them confirmed the presence of stanozolol in the protein supplement.