Credit: Twitter
India ace sprinter Dutee Chand will serve a four-year ban after failing an out-of-competition dope test for selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs) in December 2022. The Odisha native has emerged as one of India's best athletes over the last five years and set the 100m national record at 11.17s at the Indian Grand Prix (IGP) 4 in Patiala in June 2021.
Also Read: Dipa Karmarkar reacts to being dropped from India’s Asian Games squad
The ban starts from January 3, 2023, and Chand's competitive results from December 5, 2022, the date of sample collection, will be disqualified. She will have to forfeit the medals, points and prizes as reported by The Times of India.
TOI quoted a statement by the Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (ADDP) put forth that Dutee has failed to prove that the rule violation was unintentional. The statement said, “The athlete though has satisfied the panel with the source of ingestion of the prohibited substance but was not able to establish the no significant fault or negligence."
The ADDP, headed by Chaitanya Mahajan, further added, “In view of the totality of circumstances, the athlete has failed to establish that the said anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) was unintentional due to following reasons: 1) The athlete instead of consulting a physician allegedly consulted her physiotherapist and consumed the medicines prescribed by her. 2) The athlete did not check the label with respect to the contents of the medicine consumed by her. 3) The athlete didn’t cross-check the contents of the drugs with the latest published lists of prohibited substances by WADA."
Also Read: Dipa Karmarkar's coach slams SAI’s selection criteria for Asiad
ADDP also confirmed Dutee “violated article 2.1 and 2.2 of the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA)… she is hereby sanctioned with an ineligibility period of four years as per article 10.2.1.1 of the NADA ADR 2021 beginning from the date of provisional suspension i.e. January 3, 2023."
The 26-year-old has 21 days to file an appeal against the order. Last year, Chand recorded her season-best performance of 11.40s in the National Inter-State Athletics Championships semifinals in Chennai. But failed to win the gold medal against Hima Das in the final.
