National record holder Aishwarya Babu fails dope test

In a double blow for Indian athletics on Wednesday, national record-holding triple jumper Aishwarya Babu has tested positive for a banned substance. This comes immediately after the news of star sprinter Dhanalakshmi also testing positive.

Both Dhanalakshmi and Aishwarya Babu had been named in India's 36-member Athletics contingent for the upcoming Commonwealth Games. Both are set to miss out.

The 25-year-old Aishwarya's dope sample, taken by the NADA officials during the National Inter-State Athletics Championships in Chennai last month, returned a positive result. "Triple jumper Aishwarya Babu's sample, taken during the National Inter-State Championships, has returned positive," a source told PTI on Wednesday.

Aishwarya had smashed the triple jump national record with a stunning effort of 14.14m to emerge the undisputed star of the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships (June 10-14) in Chennai. The Karnataka athlete had gone past Mayookha Johny's 11-year-old record of 14.11m.

She had earlier taken the athletics fans in the country by surprise when she leapt a massive distance of 6.73m in women's long jump qualifying round at the same event. This was the best-ever jump by an Indian woman other than the legendary Anju Bobby George.