After Narsingh, second Indian Olympian fails dope test
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Close on the heels of Narsingh Yadav's controversial dope test failing, Olympics-bound shotput athlete Inderjeet Singh has tested positive for a banned substance. The Asian Games Gold medallist, who was the first Indian to qualify for the Olympics, was caught in the test late last week.
Even as the Narsingh Yadav controversy has refused to die down and has attracted the attention of even the Prime Minister, the positive test of Inderjeet Singh comes as a shocker to Indian sports fans. The second athlete to fail the tests, Inderjeet's incident has dented the optimism around India's record 120- member Olympic contingent.
"The National Anti-Doping Agency sent a letter to the athletics federation this evening saying Inderjeet had failed a dope test," a source told ToI.
The incident, in fact, will only put the other athletes in India's 34-member strong athletics squad under the microscope.
Inderjeet is a Gold medal winner at the Asiads, the Asian Grand Prix and the World University Games last year and was India's first entry to seal a Rio berth. The 28-year-old was considered a definite finalist at the event at Rio and had traveled to Pennsylvania, USA to train for the Games. It is here that he is learnt to have come in contact with banned performance enhancing drugs.
"We were doubting something was wrong when we came to know about him avoiding the NADA tests. Our worst fears have come true," sources said, reported ToI.
The 28-year old had reportedly tried to avoid the periodic tests by the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) which had led to heightened suspicions.
One is now left to wonder how many of the vaunted 120 members could come under the cloud of doping. Even if none more are caught, it is unfortunate that the festive mood among the athletes and fans has been dampened by these incidents so close to the Games.
