Verdict on Narsingh deferred to Monday

The NADA hearing today went on for eight hours. NADA deputy general Navin Agarwal said the panel studied a lot of documents today and will give its verdict on Monday evening.

Narsingh Yadav will have to wait till Monday to know about his chances of participating in the Rio Games.

The suspense over wrestler Narsingh Yadav's Olympic participation was today prolonged after the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) deferred its final verdict on the doping scandal to Monday.

The NADA hearing today went on for eight hours. NADA deputy general Navin Agarwal said the panel studied a lot of documents today and will give its verdict on Monday.

"The panel again sat today and reviewed the whole case. The panel will give its verdict at 4 pm on Monday," Agarwal said, "The reason for marathon meeting and the delay in declaring the verdict is because there are a lot of documents needed to be studied and the arguments have been lengthy. We are hopeful that justice will be done," he added.

Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh refused to comment anything as the case is still sub-judice.

Narsingh had returned positive for methandienone (a banned anabolic steroid), following which Narsingh claimed that the entire episode was a conspiracy against him.

Narsingh's chances of competing in the Olympics grew thinner on Wednesday after the wrestler failed a second dope test, which was conducted on July 5. He was already under provisional suspension for failing a June 25 dope test.

Moreover, the wrestler's final effort to establish a conspiracy theory also fell flat as one of the two cooks, who had claimed to have seen a junior wrestler mixing something in Narsingh's food at the Sports Authority of India's (SAI) Sonepat centre's mess, changed his testimony in front of the three-member NADA panel.

The panel had summoned two cooks on the request of Narsingh's lawyer Vidushpat Singhania yesterday.

Earlier, the argument put forth by NADA was that Narsingh was not eligible for remission, which he had been asking for, because he failed to establish that he did not commit any fault.

"Since he has not been able to establish how the banned substance had entered his body, we argued that he should be given punishment," NADA's lawyer Gaurang Kanth had said at the end of the hearing on Thursday.