NEW DELHI: India's top long-distance runner,
Sanjivani Jadhav
, has been banned for two years by the International athletics federation's (IAAF) 'Athletics Integrity Unit' (AIU) for failing a dope test. The two-time Asian Championships bronze medallist will serve a retrospective suspension period (two years), commencing from June 29, 2018.
The Nashik-born athlete has been awarded a minimum punishment period of two years for her first-time doping offence since it could not be conclusively established as to whether the athlete deliberately consumed the banned substance or it got into her system inadvertently. Her dope sample was found to have contained
Probenecid
.
As a result of her ban, all the medals won by Sanjivani post her appearance at the TCS World 10k held in Bengaluru, stand withdrawn. Sanjivani's urine sample was first collected by the
National Anti-Doping Agency
(Nada) during this event. Later her sample was again taken at the national inter-state senior athletics meet in Guwahati.
Sanjivani will forfeit her medals won at the inter-state Guwahati meet (gold in both 5,000m and 10,000m), Federation Cup Patiala (gold in 10,000m and bronze in 5,000m) and Asian Championships in Doha (bronze in 10,000m). She was also part of the country's athletics contingent for the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, where she had finished seventh in the 5,000m and ninth in the 10,000m events.
In two separate cases of doping, Ramshad (102kg), a silver medallist at the 2019 senior nationals, has failed the dope test for
tamoxifen
, a
testosterone
booster. He has been put under provisional suspension.
Similarly, judoka Paramjeet (+106kg) from Haryana has been issued the notice for anti-doping rule violation after his sample returned positive during the open selection trials held in June at the SAI centre, Bhopal. Paramjeet had won a gold at the 2019 Khelo India Youth Games in Pune. He has also been a bronze medallist at the 2017 Asian cadet championships.
I am innocent, says Sanjivani
Sanjivani said in a statement that she did not know how the banned substance entered her system. "The banned agent in vitamin supplement was found to be only 00.2 nano gram (as against 2 ml required for suspension). I am innocent but I had to admit (my guilt) since WADA found it in my sample."
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