India's fastest U23 sprinter fails dope test, faces 4-year ban
Delhi-based athlete Taranjeet Kaur, one of the most famous trainees of wrestler Sushil Kumar's Chhatrasal Stadium, was being touted as a Paris Olympics hopeful after a breakthrough year in 2021.
Taranjeet Kaur, one of India's most promising youth athletes, is under the doping scanner (Instagram/TaranjeetKaur)
India's fastest Under-23 female athlete, Taranjeet Kaur, has failed in-competition dope tests and faces a four-year ban from competing in events sanctioned by World Athletics.
The Delhi-based athlete, one of the most famous trainees of wrestler Sushil Kumar's Chhatrasal Stadium, won the 100m and 200m sprint double at the inaugural National U-23 Championships held in September last year. She also won the 100m gold and 200m silver in National Athletcs Open Championships. She won the 100 and 200 double at U-20 Federation Cup earlier this year as well.
The 19-year-old was being touted as a Paris Olympics hopeful and she had said her aim in 2022 would have been to break the 200m national record held by Dutee Chand.
Taranjeet failed in-competition dope tests conducted by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), according to Sportskeeda. These tests would have been conducted at a time around her impressive performances in September. She will get an opportunity to prove her innocence before NADA's disciplinary panel.
Taranjeet returned to the sprint track after a pep talk from Sushil Kumar after a freak road accident three years ago forced her to consider hanging up her spikes.
"This is a second life for me. If Sushil sir hadn't spoken to me that day I wouldn't have been here today," Taranjeet had told Indian Express after her sprints in September.