Mumbai: Indian shot putter Inderjeet Singh said on Tuesday he has been notified by the national anti-doping agency (NADA) that he has returned a positive test for banned substances in his A sample. He has the option to test his B sample in the next seven days.
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NADA Director General Navin Agarwal confirmed that the wrestler’s room mate and training partner, Sandeep Yadav, has also tested positive for the same substance, which Indian media has reported to be the banned anabolic steroid methandienone.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Sports Minister Vijay Goel said, Narisingh is under provisional suspension.
After Narsingh Yadav failed the doping test for Rio Olympics 2016, Praveen Rana replaces Narsingh Yadav for Rio Olympics in 74kg category of Wrestling. If Narsingh’s appeal is upheld, he is likely to be reinstated and sent to Rio.
Yadav has claimed his supplements and water had been “sabotaged”.
Wrestling Federation of India had kept Rana and Jitender as stand-bys for Narsingh, which had ruled out Sushil Kumar’s chances of going to Rio. Yadav earned the Olympic qualification with his bronze at worlds, but Kumar wanted the spot despite not participating in India’s Olympic Trials. Narsingh’s record is clean. The body urged the Sports Ministry and top officials in the government to help Narsingh’s case. “As for the dope tests, I can not say about Inderjeet but two athletes have tested positive so far, including Narsingh”, Agarwal said. “It will be clear once his “B” sample is tested and it is negative”, he added.
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Meanwhile, the 23-year-old Rana, who is a former junior world medallist, will head to Georgia with the India team on Wednesday and train with them for the remaining part before Rio Games.
