500 athletes fail dope test in the last five years

In what may come as an embarrassing revelation for India’s anti-doping machinery, 500 sportspersons, mostly weightlifters and track-and-field athletes, have failed drug tests conducted by NADA in the last four and a half years.

A total of 500 athletes were found to have violated Anti Doping Rules from January 2009 till July 2013 by the country’s main anti-doping agency and a total of 423 athletes were slapped with sanctions by the Anti Doping Disciplinary Panel (ADDP).

These findings were revealed by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) in response to an RTI reply. Official figures by the anti-doping agency have come up with some shocking statistics.

“NADA came into effect from January 2009. As a result of dope testing, a total of 500 athletes were found to have violated Anti Doping Rules till July 2013. A total of 423 athletes were imposed sanction by Anti Doping Disciplinary Panel (ADDP). Athletics tops the drug offenders’ list. As a result, action taken by NADA, athletes were sanctioned by anti-doping panels,” said NADA in response to the RTI.

“Since NADA has come into effect from January 2009, a total of 14,684 dope samples were collected from January 2009 to July 2013. NADA has conducted 9898 dope tests during the last three years on athletes. Athletics tops the list with 113 doping rule violations followed by 92 in weightlifting,” said NADA.

A report by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in August this year had revealed that India has the second highest number of dope cheats (43) in the world just behind Russia, 44 of whose athletes are on the suspended list.