French athletics meet shuts doors on Indian participation citing high doping numbers

The Meeting de Limoges, a challenger-level athletics meet on the Continental Tour of the World Athletics calendar, cancelled the entries of three Indian athletes after initially accepting them last month.

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE: It is learned that a Commonwealth Games medallist, a junior worlds medallist and a high jumper were supposed to compete at the Limoges before their entries were cancelled. | Photo Credit: THE HINDU

With India increasingly coming under the scanner of global anti-doping bodies, non-offending athletes are now having to deal with the fallout of increased suspicion.

In an unprecedented incident, the Meeting de Limoges, a challenger-level athletics meet on the Continental Tour of the World Athletics calendar, cancelled the entries of three Indian athletes after initially accepting them last month citing controversies related to doping and athletics in India.

It is learned that a Commonwealth Games medallist, a junior worlds medallist and a high jumper were supposed to compete at the Limoges, France in June before having their entries cancelled.

That decision came shortly after the release of the 2022 Testing Figures report by WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) according to which India had registered the highest percentage of failed dope tests among countries which tested more than 2,000 samples.

According to the report, India tested 3,865 samples (urine, and blood combined) during the recorded period, of which 125 returned adverse analytical findings. This amounts to 3.2 per cent of the samples, WADA said in its report released last Wednesday.

Although none of the Indians have ever fallen foul of doping control in the past, the organisers are learned to have communicated to them that since they could not prove their innocence (that they hadn’t doped in the past) they did not want to take ‘the slightest risk on this topic’.

In response, justifying the withdrawal of entry, the organisers of the Meeting de Limoges have stated, “The organization took this decision in view of the various controversies related to doping and athletics in India. The organization does not want to take even the slightest risk on this topic in the framework of the meeting, and since there is no possibility of proving that your athletes are not part of doping, the organization prefers to remain cautious.”

“First, we got a confirmation and so we had asked for the reason for the removal of confirmation since we had planned all the travel already. For a small meeting, they don’t know a lot of Indian athletes. The only thing they see in Western media is a race where seven guys don’t run in the race because they are afraid of doping control. That’s the perspective,” said an individual who was involved in the situation who preferred to stay anonymous.

“While I understand where they are coming from, it feels unfair that all the Indian athletes are affected, especially in the Olympic year. Decisions like this make years of hard work feel as if it’s wasted. It’s not right that we are being punished for someone else’s wrong actions,” said one of the Indian athletes affected.

According to a player agent who works with Indian athletes, the increasing cases of doping being reported from India has led to some amount of incredulity over any strong Indian performance.

“I get that all the time from racing organisers. Whenever a guy does really well, they say, ‘Yeah, but come on man, they are from India.’ And then I have to tell them that there is the same problem in other countries as well. And the guys who are regularly training abroad are of course clean,” he said.

Adille Sumariwalla, president of the Indian Athletics Association, did not comment on the issue. “I am not aware of such an instance,” Sumariwalla said.