Jyoti Singh, who won elite women’s half marathon gold in the New Delhi Marathon earlier this year, has tested positive for a banned substance, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) said Monday.
Jyoti, who had clocked 1 hour 22 minutes and 20 seconds towin the race, was placed under provisional suspension on May 14. The race washeld here on February 24. She is set to be stripped of the gold she had won.
“If it is true, she will be stripped of her gold. Thesilver winner will be upgraded to gold,” race director Nagaraj Adiga toldPTI.
The NADA also said that 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games goldmedallist weightlifter K Ravi Kumar has been provisionally suspended fortesting positive for a banned substance.
The dope flunk of Ravi, who won gold in 69kg in the 2010Delhi CWG, comes after more than a dozen weightlifters failed dope tests lastmonth.
His sample was collected during the 71st Men & 34thWomen Senior National Weightlifting Championship in Visakhapatnam in February.
According to the NADA, five other weightlifters — VeerenderSingh (96kg), Deepika (49kg), Vishal Solanki (109kg), Seema (81kg) and Purnima Pandey (87kg) — who took part inthat National Championship returned positive.
Two athletes who won medals in the Khelo India Youth Gamesin Pune earlier this year — wrestler Rohit Ahire (Greco Roman 72kg) andswimmer Sahil Pawar (50m freestyle) — also tested positive for bannedsubstance and have been placed under provisional suspension.
The NADA’s Anti-Doping Appeal Panel has also upheld thedecision of the Disciplinary Panel to impose a suspension of eight years onquartermiler Priyanka Panwar, a member of the gold-winning Indian team in the2014 Asian Games.
Priyanka had tested positive a second time in 2016. Herfirst dope offence was in 2011.
The Anti-Doping Appeal Panel also reduced the ineligibilityperiod of hockey player Akash Chikte from two years imposed by the DisciplinaryPanel to 13 months.The NADA also confirmed that 16-year-old AryanBhatia, who became the first Indian tennis player to fail a dope test, has beenlet off by the Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel.