Asiad-bound steeplechase runner fails dope test

In what is so far the first instance of an Asiad bound athlete testing positive for a banned substance, Steeplechase athlete Naveen Kumar Dagar has failed the dope test after registering a positive for meldonium during the tests conducted at the National Inter-State Athletics C'ships held last month in Guwahati. Dagar had earlier won Bronze in his event at the 2014 Asian Games held at Incheon. This year, he qualified by achieving the Asian Games qualification mark of 8.41 seconds during the athletics meet held at Guwahati. According to a recent PTI report, the results of his dope test had caused the steeplechase runner to be handed over a provisional suspension by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) around July 23. The In-Competition test conducted by the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) is what brought forth the unfavourable result. This will undoubtedly be a severe blow to the Jakarta bound athletics contingent. AFI has suspended Dagar, who was undergoing high altitude training with other middle and long distance runners in Bhutan. He has tested positive for meldonium. He is now awaiting his B sample report," a source close to the athlete told

PTI. For Athletics Federation of India, the setback is worse as this is the second athlete to have been implicated in a case of substance abuse within a very short span of time. A few days back, it was Javelin Thrower Amit Kumar who had earlier failed to make a mark at the Inter State and ended up not qualifying for the Asian Games. It is pertinent here to mention that neither the AFI nor NADA has issued an official statement yet in the case of Dagar. There will be more clarity once the results of the tests conducted on the B-Sample are brought through. It is also important to remember here that the NADA had faced substantial criticism which questioned its seriousness in weeding out dope offenders during the National Inter State Meet in Guwahati. This came after reports suggested that the officials of India's dope testing agency had been suspiciously absent on Day 1 of the meet.