Tokyo Olympic-bound wrestler Sumit Malik fails dope test, provisionally suspended

Sumit Malik, the 2018 Commonwealth Games gold-medallist, had qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in the 125kg category at the Bulgaria event which was the last chance for wrestlers to earn quotas. The 28-year-old's dream of competing at the event starting July 23 seems as good as over with this.

Tokyo Olympic-bound Indian wrestler Sumit Malik has been provisionally suspended after failing a dope test during the recent qualifiers in Bulgaria, a major embarrassment for the country with just weeks left for the Games. It marks the second consecutive instance of a wrestler being caught in dope net before the Olympics – the previous being ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics when Narsingh Pancham Yadav had failed one and was slapped with a four-year ban. Malik, the 2018 Commonwealth Games gold-medallist, had qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in the 125kg category at the Bulgaria event which was the last chance for wrestlers to earn quotas. The 28-year-old's dream of competing at the event starting July 23 seems as good as over with this. “The UWW (United World Wrestling) informed the Wrestling Federation of India yesterday that Sumit has failed the dope test. Now he has to give his B sample on June 10,” a WFI source told news agency PTI.