Indian discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur has been banned from competition for three years, starting March 29, 2022, due to doping violation, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced on Wednesday.
The AIU, which is the independent body created by World Athletics that manages all integrity issues — including doping and age fraud, had provisionally suspended Kamalpreet in May this year for testing positive for the banned substance stanozolol, an anabolic steroid that is on the list of banned substances as per the World Athletics.
Her samples had been tested at a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited lab in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The 26-year-old had tested her samples at a private lab and was also allowed by the WADA to have them tested at the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) in New Delhi, both of which came up positive for stanozolol.
Following an interview with the WADA to allow her to explain the positive result, the AIU concluded that Kamalpreet could not determine how the substance had entered her body, making her eligible for a four-year ban.
However, within 20 days of receiving the notice, Kamalpreet Kaur accepted her violation, which enabled her to shave off one year from the ban, making it a three-year ban beginning March 29, 2022.
“The Athlete has failed to demonstrate that the Anti-Doping Rule Violations were not intentional. Therefore, the mandatory period of Ineligibility is a period of Ineligibility of four (4) years,” the AIU said in a statement.
“However, Rule 10.8.1 ADR provides that an athlete potentially subject to an asserted period of Ineligibility of four (4) years may benefit from a one (1)-year reduction in the period of Ineligibility based on an early admission and acceptance of sanction,” it added.
The ban will rule the discus thrower out of next year’s Asian Games as well as the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Kamalpreet — the national record holder in the discus throw — had made her Olympic debut in Tokyo 2020, where she finished sixth in the final. She joins fellow discus thrower Navjeet Kaur Dhillon, sprinter Dhanalakshmi Sekar and quarter-miler MR Poovamma in the list of Indians who faced doping bans lately. Javelin thrower Shivpal Singh has also been suspended for doping.
