Weightlifting
CWG medallist Sanjita Chanu among 47 provisionally suspended for doping
Weightlifter Sanjita Chanu is among top athletes to fail dope test as per the NADA list of provisionally suspended athletes.
Sanjita Chanu has not represented India since her 2018 CWG gold medal. She now trains overtime to make up for lost time.
Two-time Commonwealth Games (CWG) gold medallist, Khumukcham Sanjita Chanu, has failed the dope test and has been provisionally suspended by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA).
The weightlifter from Manipur was suspended for the use of a prohibited substance Drostanolone Metabolite, an official NADA document said.
Sanjita Chanu had bagged the silver medal in the women's 49kg category at the National Games 2022 in Gujarat behind Mirabai Chanu with a total lift of 187kg.
Sanjita's sample was taken on the same day and it showed the presence of Drostanolone, an anabolic steroid that is on the specified list of the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) prohibited list.
This is not the first time Sanjita has been charged with doping. She was banned by International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) in May 2018 after testing positive for testosterone.
But she was cleared of suspension when IWF revealed it was a typing error on their part leading to mixing of samples and dismissed it as an administrative mistake without any clarification.
The weightlifter will now have to appear before the disciplinary panel of NADA to prove her innocence and if she is found guilty, it will result in a four-year suspension and loss of National Games silver.
Athletics and Weightlifting top the suspension list
In the newly released list, NADA has added 17 new names.
Athletics and Weightlifting constitute the biggest chunk of suspended athletes. 13 athletes from Athletics and 11 Weightlifters make up the 24 out of 47 suspended sportspersons. Sprinters Dhanalaxmi Sekar, MV Jilna, and jumper Aishwarya Babu are the big names from athletics on the list.
Six wrestlers are also on the list with most of them suspended for the use of steroids.
As per World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), India is third in the number of doping violators just behind Russia and Italy. India is home to 17% of doping violators.
As per National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), a total of 1,181 athletes have failed dope tests in a space of twelve years from 2010 to 2022.
