Gomathi Marimuthu tests positive for steroids; handed provisional ban

After widespread speculations and reports, now it has been confirmed by a source close to the developments that Gomathi Marimuthu was tested positive and has been provisionally suspended for using a banned substance. Marimuthu had won a gold medal in the 800metres race at the 23rd Asian Athletics Championships in Doha last month. 

“Yes, Gomathi has tested positive for a steroid and she has been placed under provisional suspension,” a top source who chooses to remain anonymous told PTI.

The ‘A’ sample of the 800 meters sprinter has returned positive and if the ‘B’ sample returns the same result, she will face a maximum ban of four years, considering this is her first such offence. The 30-year-old sprinter from Tamil Nadu will also be stripped of the gold medal she won in the Asian Championships, where she clocked 2:02:70s.

The official also revealed that the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) was already aware of her doping activities having run tests on the sample collected during the Federation Cup in Patiala but failed to present the results of the tests in time.

“We have learnt that Gomathi also tested positive in the sample taken during the Federation Cup which was held in mid-March. But that report is yet to reach us even now, after more than two months. That report is on the way, we have been told,” the official said.

“If the report was handed to us on time, she would have been stopped from taking part in the Asian Championships and the country would have been saved from this humiliation. We have no idea why the NADA did not inform us on Gomathi’s dope positive result to us before the Asian Championships. There was more than one month’s time in between.”

“She was not in the national camp and that is why we have been emphasising on the requirement that athletes who have to take part in the international events should be from the national camp,” the official concluded.