By IANS,
New Delhi : The list of Indian dope offenders continues to grow ahead of the Oct 3-14 Commonwealth Games with three swimmers, including national champion Richa Mishra, Sunday confirmed to have tested positive by National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA).
Richa, who won the best swimmer award for women in the Senior National Aquatics Championships in Jaipur last month, Jyotsna Pansari and Amar Muralidharan’s samples returned positive among the 39 swimmers tested by NADA in Jaipur.
Richa and Jyotsna are the part of Commonwealth Games squad. All three have been provisionally suspended by NADA.
The swimmers tested positive for the methylhexaneamine, a drug used as a nasal decongestant, as well as treatment for hypertrophied or hyperplastic oral tissues.
“The samples were taken during the 64th Senior National Aquatic Championship in Jaipur in August. From the 39 samples, these three swimmers tested positive. The results of all others were negative. They have been asked to report for their B-sample testing at the earliest by NADA,” NADA director general Rahul Bhatnagar told IANS.
Swimming Federation of India (SFI) secretary general Virendra Nanavati termed it a setback.
“The federation has been clean even at the world level. So, it is a huge setback for us. But we can’t do anything here. We have informed the swimmers concerned,” Nanavati told IANS.
“We are not naming the replacements for now, we need some time. For replacements, we have to hold a meeting of selectors and also need to seek the permission of the Indian Olympic Association and the Commonwealth Games Federation.”
Six wrestlers and two athletes have already tested positive, also for methylhexaneamine, in random testing conducted by NADA during the trials in Patiala and have been provisionally suspended by their federations.
Wrestlers Sumit (74kg), Mausam Khatri (96kg) and Rajiv Tomar (120kg) in the men’s freestyle and Gursharanpreet Kaur (72kg) in the women’s section were part of the Commonwealth Games squad and have been replaced.
The two athletes who returned positive in the dope test conducted by NADA during the trials at Patiala are Saurabh Vij and discus thrower Akash Antil.