Athlete Manpreet Kaur under dope cloud

BENGALURU: Indian athletics continued to be rocked by doping charges as Asian and national champion shot putter Manpreet Kaur (Sr) returned a positive test for a banned stimulant, a mild infringement in doping parlance, in a test conducted last month.
According to the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), the sample provided by Manpreet -who shot into fame shattering Harbans Kaur's 18year-old national shot put record at the 2015 Open Nationals in Kolkata -last month during the Federation Cup in Patiala contained dimethylbutylamine, a specified substance in the list of banned drugs.
The 27-year-old Patiala athlete, who returned to action in 2013 after a sabbatical and qualified for the Rio Games, was in great form at the start of the season as she set the national mark of 18.86m in Jinhua, China during the first leg of the Asian Grand Prix.
She then won the Federation Cup gold in Patiala with a below par effort of 17.04m, yet two metres more than her rivals. But her performance jumped back to 18.28m at the Asian Championships before she slumped to 15.65m,in a matter of few days, as she took the gold in the Inter-State meet which ended in Guntur on Tuesday.
"This is the first time that we have found this substance in an Indian athlete's sample. So we had to conduct more tests to confirm its presence before we gave the report," NADA Director General Navin Agarwal told TOI.
He said just like in the case of javelin thrower Davinder Singh Kang, who tested positive for marijuana during a test in May, Manpreet also didn't get a provisional suspension. "Unlike a steroid, these are mild offences and that's why they didn't get a provisional suspension. They are free to complete till they are proved guilty by a NADA panel," he said.
The news about the positive result of Manpreet, who has made the grade for the Worlds, comes on the eve of the selection committee meeting of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to pick the Indian team for next month's World Athletics Championship.
The selectors would now find it difficult to drop Manpreet from the squad as they had allowed Kang, who was also flagged for a similar offence, to compete at the Asian Athletics in Bhubaneswar.
Seven athletes to miss Commonwealth Youth Games
Meanwhile, the callous attitude of the Indian Olympic Association and the AFI saw seven of the 12 Indian athletes missing a chance to compete at the Commonwealth Youth Games now on in Bahamas.
"Seven of the 12 athletes in the Indian squad were on Wednesday asked to return from Delhi as the officials said they won't be able to get tickets from London to Bahamas. The officials also told the athletes they missed the trip due to the delay in the processing of their visas," sources told TOI.
The officials only took two athletes -who had their events scheduled on the second or third day -from Delhi while the other three flew in to Bahamas from Nairobi after competing in the IAAF World U-18 Championships.