The Archery Association of India (AAI) is likely to drop Anita Kumari from the National team for the World Cup Stage II in Shanghai, to be held from May 6 to 12, after learning that the compound archer has tested positive for a banned substance.
Anita, who returned a positive result for propanolol beta blocker for her urine sample collected during the Khelo India Youth Games in January, had made it to the Indian side on the basis of her performance in the selection trials held at Bhubaneswar between March 12 and 18.
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The AAI, which had got the clearance from the Sports Authority of India (SAI) for all the archers, including Anita, last month, is seriously considering dropping the archer after getting the communication from National Anti Doping Agency (NADA).
“I don’t have the details now and I don’t know whether she has been provisionally suspended. But we cannot take any risk,” AAI president B.V.P. Rao told Sportstar on Saturday. “There is no need to find a replacement as three other girls are there in the team.”
Rao also clarified why the AAI appointed two coaches, Ved Kumar and Kailash (who has been roped in as a compound coach), who competed in National selection trials for recurve archers in Rohtak in the last week of January.
“They are not active archers. We needed some people with good track records to bring in discipline in the team,” said Rao.
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Olympian Lalram Sanga, the convenor of the National selection committee, who suggested the name of Ved Kumar to Rao, said both archers had good experience.
“Ved is around 45 years of age and Kailash is between 35 and 40. They have been good archers and have done both recurve and compound. We needed some common coaches who could look after all the archers in the side,” said Sanga.
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