Discus thrower Kamalpreet gets three-year ban for doping

Kamalpreet Kaur, who finished sixth at the Tokyo Olympics, tested positive for the presence of stanozolol, a prohobited non-specified substance.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur, the National record holder who was sixth in last year’s Tokyo Olympics, has been suspended for three years by the Athletics Integrity Unit for failing a dope test.

Kamalpreet was tested out of competition in Patiala on March 7 this year and her urine sample showed the presence of stanozolol, a non-specified substance prohibited at all times by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

That should have brought the 26-year-old a four-year ban but she was given a one-year reduction in the period of ineligibility based on her early admission of the anti-doping rule violation and acceptance of sanction after receiving the notice of charge on September 7.

Her three-year ban began on March 29, 2022 (the date of provisional suspension) and all her results, awards, medals and prize-money from March 7 will be forfeited. That will keep her out of next year’s Asian Games and the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Kamalpreet had made stunning progress in 2021 and in June last year, she bettered her own National record to 66.59m. So will that record be scrapped?

“Will go as per law,” Adille Sumariwalla, the Athletics Federation of India president, told The Hindu.

Process followed

When her sample was collected on March 7 this year, Kamalpreet had made many disclosures in the doping control form’s declarations section. The AIU notified her about the adverse analytical finding on March 29 and a few days later, the discus thrower wanted the many protein supplements, that she normally consumed, to be analysed at the New Delhi WADA-accredited laboratory. One of them confirmed the presence of stanozolol in the protein supplement.

But the AIU was not convinced as Kamalpreet could not obtain a sealed bottle of the protein supplement from the same batch. And on September 7, the AIU issued the athlete with a notice of charge.

Kamalpreet joins the long list of top athletes who are now under suspension for doping in the last one year or so, a list that includes India No. 2 javelin thrower Shivpal Singh, Asian Games 4x400m relay gold medallist M.R. Poovamma, sprinter S. Dhanalakshmi and discus thrower Navjeet Kaur Dhillon.