Woman athlete 'absconding' as dope testers try to reach her: Report

After getting selected for the World Championship, she was supposed to fly to Antalya in Turkey for her 4x100 women’s relay match but she didn’t report there

One of the top woman athletes in the country has been on the radar of the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for a dope test after her sudden improvement in timings caught the attention of the global anti-doping watchdog.

In recent national athletics meet, the athlete ran several seconds faster than her previous best timing, made it to India’s all-time best list, and qualified for the World Championship, according to a report by The Indian Express. However, the AIU noticed her recent improvement and wanted to do a dope test on her.

DH could not independently verify this report.

But the AIU testers told The Indian Express that the athlete had been absconding since then.

After getting selected for the World Championship, she was supposed to fly to Antalya in Turkey for her 4x100 women’s relay match but she didn’t even report there.

Even the officials and coaches of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) have not been able to get in touch with her, the news report stated. Her current personal coach who was punished for doping also didn’t know about her whereabouts since April.

“She was to travel with the team to Antalya, Turkey, on April 14. But she did not show up. We have not been able to contact her because her phone number has been switched off. We do not know why she has not joined the camp. She should have been in Turkey with the rest of the athletes but she is absconding. The AIU is also looking for her to collect samples for dope testing,” The Indian Express quoted an AFI source.

The athlete had attended the national camp four years ago when she clocked her best timing but the coaches were shocked after she slowed down before ‘suddenly’ improving her timing.

There have been instances before where the athletes have stayed away from national camps and then failed dope tests.

One of them is Nirmala Sheoran, the 2017 Asian Athletics gold medalist who avoided the national camp and then failed a dope test to receive a four-year ban.

Since 2017, the AIU took over World Athletics’ anti-doping programme to keep corruption, betting, and manipulation in check.