S.Ravi seshu
Much to the joy of Indian sports-lovers, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) exonerated of doping charges framed against wrestler Narsingh P Yadav paving his way to take a flight to Rio de Jeneiro. The agency gave credence to the ‘sabotage’ angle in the murky episode and gave the benefit of doubt to the athlete.
Amidst nation-wide uproar over the issue, the Director General of NADA, Naveen Agarwal said:
“We kept in mind that in the past, till June 2, none of his samples were positive. It was inconceivable that one-time ingestion would be of benefit. Therefore the panel is of the view that the one-time ingestion was not intentional. The panel concludes that the athlete deserves the benefit of article 10.4 of the NADA’s anti-doping code. Keeping in view that he was victim of a sabotage, the panel exonerates the athlete from charges of anti-doping rules of NADA.” Having underwent trauma with the doping charges, Narsingh is relieved with the verdict.
“I want to thank everyone who supported me. It’s a triumph for truth. I want to go to Rio and bring back a medal for India,” Narsingh said.
The 26-year-old Yadav got India a berth at Rio in the 74kg category by winning a bronze medal at last year’s world championships in Las Vegas but caught in series of First, controversies that seriously affected his preparation. Sushil Kumar, winner of a bronze in the 66kg category in Beijing in 2008 and silver in London, moved up a weight after his category was scrapped, sought a court order for a bout between the pair to determine who should go to Rio.
The Delhi High Court ruled against Sushil, the only Indian athlete to win two individual Olympic medals, clearing the way for Narsingh to compete in Rio but then the doping charges (as he was tested positive to methandienone) came as a rude shock.
Denying the allegation, the freestyle wrestler had said his supplements and water had been sabotaged and lodged a police complaint against a junior wrestler accusing him of contaminating his food at the Sports Authority of India training centre in Sonepat.
The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), which provisionally sent the name of Parveen Rana as replacement for Narsingh to the United World Wrestling (UWW), announced that it would now approach the governing body to allow Yadav to compete at the Olympics.
“We will write to both WADA and the UWW to allow Narsingh to compete at the Rio Games. We are sure Narsingh Yadav will go to Rio and win a medal for India,” WFI said. Men’s freestyle wrestling starts in Rio from Aug. 19.
Rule 10.4 in WADA’s 2016 Code says that ‘if an athlete or other person establishes in an individual case that he or she bears no fault or negligence, then the otherwise applicable period of ineligibility shall be eliminated. They will only apply in exceptional circumstances, for example, where an athlete could prove that, despite all due care, he or she was sabotaged by a competitor.’
Now the government should fix the people involved in the act of sabotage.
