India's doping woes came to the fore once again with the country topping the World Anti-Doping Agency's 2023 testing figures among countries which analysed 5,000 or more samples even as the sports ministry promised an "aggressive clean-up" and an amended Anti-Doping Act after addressing objections from the WADA.
In a bid to ease cricketers' concerns over the contentious "Whereabouts Requirements" clause of the WADA Anti-Doping Code, the ICC has assured its member boards that the dope testing programme would be "reasonable".
The number of sportspersons flunking dope tests in the first seven months this year stands at a whopping 101, the highest in the last four years. The Sport Ministry on Tuesday came out with a report on the number of sportspersons, including powerlifters and bodybuilders, who failed dope test in the last four years. According to the report, the number increased from 44 in 2007 to 69 and 76 in 2008 and 2009 respectively, while this year, till July, it is 101.
American Tom Danielson has revealed he failed a doping test for synthetic testosterone but the Cannondale-Garmin rider denies taking a banned substance.
RFI general secretary MV Sriram said that food supplements consumed by junior India campers would be investigated.
Also on February 18, the ADDP handed two-year ban on wrestler Pawan Kumar and three-year suspension on boxer Pravesh Kumar.
India's Olympic hero Vijender Singh, who finds himself at the centre of a drug scandal, made himself available on Wednesday for an out-of-competition dope test by NADA officials, apparently under pressure from the Sports Ministry.
The doping menace continues to haunt Indian sport. The National Doping Agency (NADA) on Thursday announced that nine athletes tested positive for banned substances during the National Games, which concluded in Ranchi on February 26.
Doping: India records highest number of adverse findings among countries with 2000 or more tests
Indian Olympic Association vice-president Vijay Kumar Malhotra said the Sports Ministry should immediately initiate a high-level inquiry to find out the culprits who are responsible for sports persons failing dope tests.
Tennis is paying the price for being an Olympic sport and its new dope testing regime treats players like criminals, world number one Rafael Nadal says. The Spaniard is leading criticism against the procedure adopted by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), who signed the World Anti-Doping agency (WADA) protocol last year.
Dope-testing on players will carry on as the International Cricket Council (ICC) continues negotiations with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) over the controversial "whereabouts" clause, the ICC said on Wednesday. The ICC implemented the new WADA code on January 1, according to which players are supposed to reveal details of their location for an hour every day for the next three months to an ICC-nominated officer.
China's three-times Olympic champion has been provisionally suspended after testing positive for a banned substance.
Narsingh Yadav's hopes of competing in the Rio Olympics appeared bleak after he failed a second dope test, which was conducted on his samples on July 5.
Pakistan rising leg-spinner Yasir Shah on Sunday was handed a provisional suspension by the International Cricket Council after being charged with an anti-doping rule violation.
West Indies woman cricketer Tremayne Smartt was suspended for five months by the ICC for failing a dope test after a Twenty20 match against Pakistan in September.
Chinese rider Li Fuyu of Lance Armstrong's RadioShack team has been provisionally suspended for failing a doping test, the International Cycling Union (UCI) said on Thursday.
Seven Pakistan track and field athletes have been banned for two years each after failing dope tests in the national championships in Islamabad last month.
Hosts India were in for a major shock on Wednesday when their athlete Rani Yadav failed a doping test at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
The Asian Games hammer throw bronze won by India's Manju Bala has been upgraded to silver after one of the two Chinese competitors who finished ahead of her in the women's final, returned positive for dope test.
Commonwealth Games medal prospect shot putter Saurabh Vij and Akash Antil flunked dope tests conducted by the National Anti-doping Agency last month, the Athletics Federation of India said on Thursday.
Eintracht Frankfurt captain Marco Russ has been diagnosed with a tumour after he had initially tested positive in a routine doping test, the Bundesliga club said on Thursday.
India batsman Prithvi Shaw has been handed a back-dated eight-month suspension for a doping violation after ingesting a prohibited substance Terbutaline.
Kolkata Knight Riders left-arm seamer Pradeep Sangwan has failed a random dope test in the Indian Premier League, it was reported on Thursday.
'Mr. Bhamara would like to state that he was and remains a clean competitor and has always played basketball fairly'
Slovenia men's ice hockey player Ziga Jeglic has tested positive for a banned substance and has been suspended for the remainder of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said on Tuesday.
The jumper, who is in her 30s, had also competed in the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023, a source in the Athletics Federation of India told PTI.
Former India all-rounder Yusuf Pathan was on Tuesday handed a five-month retrospective suspension for failing a dope test, a sanction which will end on January 14, after the Board of Control for Cricket in India accepted that the violation was inadvertent.
The 22-year old tested positive for cannabis after winning a silver medal in the men's 60 metres at the European indoor championships in Madrid in March.
Athletics continued to be India's achilles' heel in its anti-doping campaign, accounting for 21 of the 71 positive tests recorded by the National Anti-Doping Agency in the last one year, according to the latest WADA report.
If Sumit Malik's B sample also returns positive, he can be banned from the sport.
Sushil, who is yet to make a formal statement on the matter, put out a cryptic tweet after the controversy broke out.
Vikas Thakur, who claimed a bronze medal at the ongoing Commonwealth Games, was searched and dope-tested on the day of his departure from the event on unexplained suspicions.
Two leading Indian athletes -- Mandeep Kaur and Juana Murmu have been suspended and face the prospect of a two-year ban after flunking an out-of-competition dope test.
96 sportspersons returned positive in 2013 while the number of dope offenders in 2014 and 2015 were 95 and 120 respectively.
The government's flagship Khelo India programme received an allocation of Rs 924.35 crore.
Serena Williams has re-entered the tennis anti-doping testing pool but the 23-times Grand Slam champion denied on Tuesday that the move had anything to do with her making a return to the sport she dominated for nearly two decades.
Singaporean para-athlete Mohammad Khairi Bin Ishak has been barred from competing at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games after failing a doping test prior to the multi-sports event beginning, the Singapore team said on Saturday.
Two athletes, who are in contention for the Olympic Games, have failed dope tests conducted at the Indian Grand Prix in Patiala last month, the National Anti Doping Agency's director general Navin Agarwal said on Saturday.
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