Top discus thrower Navjeet Kaur Dhillon in dope net | More sports News – Times of India

Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (AP Photo)

NEW DELHI: Since November last, at least nine Indian track and field athletes have faced sanctions for their involvement in doping, beginning with Tokyo Olympian javelin thrower Shivpal Singh.
The latest to join the hall of shame is the country’s No.1 woman discus thrower, Navjeet Kaur Dhillon, who has returned an adverse analytical finding for testosterone (S1.1 anabolic agents). Navjeet, hailing from Pun- jab’s Amritsar, was tested out of competition outside India by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) prior to the Eugene World Championships.
It’s been learnt that the AIU team collected Navjeet’s sample in Kazakhstan’s Al- maty. The 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games bronze medallist has been suspended provisionally for her dope failure and has dropped out of the national camp at NIS Patiala.
Navjeet, who rose to fame with her 2014 World Junior Athletics Championships bronze medal, had finished a disappointing eighth out of 11 finalists in the women’s discus throw competition at the Birmingham CWG, with a below-par throw of 53.51m in her sixth and final attempt. Navjeet was the second Indian athlete after Seema Punia to win a medal at the IAAF World juniors. In June this year, Navjeet had won the gold medal at the Kosanov Memorial athletics meet in Almaty with an effort of 56.24m.
The 27-year-old’s dope failure has come as a setback to the country’s fight to eradicate the menace from Indian sports. Earlier this month, the Parliament had passed the National Anti-Doping Bill 2022 to provide for a statutory framework in the form of legislation for prohibition of doping in sports and enforcing anti-doping activities in the country.
By having its own legislation, India joined the select club of countries including the USA, China, Japan and France, which have their own laws related to doping in sport.
It’s important to mention here that Navjeet’s is the sixth case of doping in Indian athletics in the last four months. Strangely, all the athletes involved are India’s top female track and field stars.
Apart from Navjeet, those who have failed dope tests in the last one year include 2019 Asian athletics championships silver medallist Shivpal, former javelin throw national record holder Rajender Singh, Asian Games 4x400m relay gold medallist M R Poovamma, Nationals champion Taranjeet Kaur and K Naresh Kumar, 100m and 4x100m specialists Dhanalakshmi Sekar and MV Jilna, discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur and triple jumper Aishwarya Babu.