Powerlifter Sandeep Kaur handed 10-year ban by NADA Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel

The 31-year-old received eight years ban for her second doping offence and additional two years after her sample was found to contain multiple banned substances.

Representative Image: The athlete, tested during the National Senior Women’s Powerlifting Championship, tested positive for Norandrosterone, Metandienone and Mephentermine. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

The Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (ADDP) of the NADA has suspended powerlifter Sandeep Kaur for 10 years, one of the longest ban periods handed by the committee, for her second doping offence as well as for using multiple prohibited drugs which constituted aggravating circumstances.

The 31-year-old Punjab powerlifter received an eight-year ban for her second doping offence -- the first being in 2019 (tested positive for Stanozolol) -- and additional two years after her sample was found to contain multiple banned substances.

Kaur had returned to competition in August last year after serving a four-year ban for her first doping offence and she finished third in the 69kg open category in the National Senior Women’s Powerlifting Championships in Kashipur, Uttarakhand.

However, her urine sample taken during the championships tested positive for Norandrosterone, Metandienone and Mephentermine.

After hearing the parties, the ADDP held that the athlete had failed to explain how the substance entered her body.

“It’s difficult to hold that ADRV (anti-doping rules violation) was not intentional,” the ADDP said in the order.

The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), through its counsel, urged the panel that the aggravating circumstances be considered in the present case because the athlete used multiple prohibited substances and the period of ineligibility may be increased by up to two years under the rules.

The ADDP accepted NADA’s submission and held that the “athlete is liable for sanctions under Article 10.9 read with 10.4 and liable for the period of ineligibility of 10 years.” The panel, however, ruled that the athlete’s period of suspension will begin on September 6, 2023, the date of the provisional suspension.

In another important decision, wushu player Avnish Giri was handed a four-year ban for taking part in a competition while still serving a ban. He was banned from August 8, 2023, under Article 10.14.1 of the NADA Rules, 2021, which bars an athlete who has been declared ineligible or is subject to a provisional suspension from participation in any competition.

Neha V, a part of Kerala’s 4x100m relay silver-winning team at the 2023 Goa National Games, has also been handed a four-year ban from December 6, 2023, onwards, for failing a dope test.

Meanwhile, the NADA added at least 40 athletes to its earlier list of athletes serving provisional suspensions, with track and field athletes and wrestlers making up the maximum number.