India's mixed team relay event Silver medal at 2018 Asian Games upgraded to Gold

India’s tally at the 2018 Asian Games stood at 16, which increased by one recently after the Mohammed Anas, Hima Das, Rajiv Akoria and M.R. Poovamma led team was awarded the Gold medal in the mixed tea, 4*400 relay event recently. The original winners, Bahrain were disqualified after a dope ban was imposed on one of their runners. Kemi Adekoya, a member of the team, was handed a four-year suspension by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for failing a dope test for steroid stanozolol in 2019. 

On the other hand, the athlete also lost her 2018 Asian Games 400m hurdles Gold medal as the AIU disqualified all her wins for the period August 24, 2018, to November 26, 2018. This allowed Indian athlete Anu Raghavan to claim a Bronze medal in the same event, taking India’s overall tally to 70 at the multi-sport event. Previously, she had clocked 56.71 seconds to finish fourth behind Bahrain’s Aminat Yusuf Jamal, who has been upgraded to silver, while top podium finish has now been awarded to Vietnam’s Quachi Thi Lan.

“This information should have come earlier. I could have applied for Arjuna Award,” said Anu Raghavan, after her Bronze upgrade.

The Indian mixed relay team has already qualified for the Tokyo Olympics last year at the Doha World Athletics Championships. President of Athletics Federation of India (AFI) stated the recent developments would act as a morale booster for the athletes ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.