Rio dream over for Inderjeet?

New Delhi: Shot-putter Inderjeet Singh’s chances of competing at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro all but ended after his confirmatory ‘B’ sample test also showed up traces of banned substances.

The 2015 Asian Championships gold medallist tested positive for a cocktail of steroids, androsterone (of the nandralone group) and etiocholanolone, both performance-enhancing drugs, at an out-of-competition test by the National Anti Doping Agency on June 22.

The news emerged a day after wrestler Narsingh Yadav was given a clean chit by a Nada disciplinary panel, thus paving his way for going to Rio. On the day, Nada director general Navin Agarwal told this paper that Inderjeet’s ‘B’ sample has come out positive for banned substances late Monday evening.

“A notice about the test has been sent to the athlete, the federation and the concerned parties late on Monday. A Nada disciplinary panel will be constituted now. Inderjeet will have to appear before the panel, which is likely to hear his case this week,” Agarwal said.

However, an Athletics Federation of India official said they hadn’t received any intimation from Nada about Inderjeet’s ‘B’ sample test. “We haven’t received any mail from Nada. But as things look right now, he (Inderjeet) is not going to Rio. If he gets a clean chit from Nada we can book his tickets. The last batch of track and field athletes are scheduled to leave on August 5,” said the official.

Track and field competitions get underway on August 12, with the shot put scheduled on August 18. Inderjeet, a bronze medallist at the Asian Games, was provisionally suspended pending a hearing and also faces the prospect of being banned for up to four years under the World Anti Doping Agency Code 2015.
Like Narsingh, Inderjeet had cried “foul” and claimed a conspiracy following the positive dope test and that his sample has been tampered with. Interestingly, Inderjeet’s second dope test (on June 29) had returned negative, underlining his claims of a “conspiracy”.

“My sample has been tampered with. This will be checked by the doctors though. Why would a player take something which is not good for his health,” Inderjeet had said.

The recent verdict on Narsingh may give some hope to Inderjeet of getting lenient punishment if he is able to proof his claim with adequate evidence. But that may not clear his way for the Games as the hearing process might take a week, and the Olympics starts in two days.

Inderjeet’s counsel Anish Dayal said their case was similar to that of Narsingh’s as the latter had also claimed “conspiracy”. “We are still discussing our defence. We are going to reply to Nada today seeking a hearing. In case of Narsingh, the Nada panel has given an expedited hearing and verdict. I hope they do it for us too.”