Asian Championship gold medallist and Asian Games bronze medallist shot putter Inderjeet Singh’s positive dope test prior to the Olympics is an indication of some diligence on the part of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), which has been consistently testing the athletes placed in its registered testing pool.
“We have been on the job and expect to catch some big fish sooner rather than later,” a NADA official had confided a few days prior to Narsingh Yadav’s positive test.
If one keeps aside the Narsingh case because of its extraordinary backdrop, then the last-minute surge in the number of qualifying track and field athletes and the sudden leap in their performances, including that of some sprinters, jumpers and throwers, helped India book its highest number (36) of quota places in athletics and build its largest ever contingent (120, including Narsingh and Inderjeet) for the Olympics.
This, however, raised doubts among keen athletics followers.
Is Inderjeet’s positive test just a one-off case?
No one is sure as of now.
But NADA, which tied up with some dope testing agencies in the West to get the athletes tested when they trained abroad, has been keeping a tab on these ‘surprising’ results.
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI), nevertheless, chose to back its athletes. “The AFI has zero tolerance to drugs. If somebody is caught, it has nothing to do with us. There is a process to be followed which is independent of us,” AFI president Adille Sumariwalla told Sportstar.
“As far as AFI is concerned, if there is discrepancy (in the testing process), we will support the athlete. But if the athlete has taken something where it is proved beyond doubt, the AFI is not going to support him.”
About the recent surge in performance of some athletes, Sumariwalla said, “People have qualified because they were slowly coming to their peak.”
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