Two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist weightlifter K Sanjita Chanu has failed a dope test and is now suspended provisionally by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA).
Sanjita’s sample was taken on September 30, the day she lifted a total of 187kg to finish second. Both her ‘A’ and ‘B’ samples have shown the presence of Drostanolone, an anabolic steroid that is on the specified list of the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) prohibited list, says a report in Tribune.
Sanjita, who will now have to appear before the anti-doping disciplinary panel of the National Anti-Doping Agency, can get a four-year suspension for this offence. If found guilty, she stands to lose her National Games silver.
“I am very sad that such a senior lifter, one who has won us two Commonwealth Games medals, has been caught in the dope net,” Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF) chief Sahdev Yadav was quoted as saying.
“Incidents like this only tarnish the image of our sport. Everyone knows that we have a strict policy towards dope cheats. We periodically get our lifters tested during camps and tournaments and there have been times when many of them have been asked to give out-of-competition samples. But we do get setbacks like this.”
In June 2018, Sanjita was banned by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) after her samples, taken during the 2017 World Championships, showed the presence of testosterone. Sanjita had claimed a ‘conspiracy’ behind that offence and was given the all-clear by the IWF in January 2019, through a letter by its legal counsel Dr Eva Nyirfa.
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