NADA ditches random testing at Inter-State Athletics; all winners to be tested

The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) will collect samples from all medal winners at the ongoing National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships instead of taking random samples for testing.

There are 43 medal events in the championships but there might be athletes who win more than one medal. "We will take samples of gold, silver and bronze winners in each event, both men and women. We are not collecting random samples," a member of the dope testing team said.

A NADA dope testing team from Bengaluru arrived on Thursday, a day before the start of the event, which will serve as a selection trial for the July 28 to Aug 8 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Last month, Maharashtra quarter-miler Aishwarya Mishra evaded dope testing agencies as she "disappeared" after winning gold in the Federation Cup in April with the third fastest Indian time (51.18 seconds) ever. She, however, false-started in the women's 400m heats in the morning session on Friday and was disqualified.

Reduced to tears, Mishra was guided by officials out of the running arena. She will now compete in the 200m race.