South Asian gold medallist Sanjana lands in dope net

In a big setback to Indian athletics, young and upcoming track star Sanjana Singh has been provisionally suspended after banned substances were found in her samples.

Sanjana, who was recently crowned the best female athlete at the South Asian Senior Athletics Championships after winning gold medals in the 1500m and 5000m events, is likely to get her ‘B’ sample checked. The 18-year-old is in the process of finalising a lawyer to fight this suspension.

It is understood that her sample taken during the 64th National Open Athletics Championships, held in Ranchi in September, showed presence of “synthetic androgen and anabolic steroid” which is banned by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

She had won two silver medals in the national championships, finishing behind Lili Das in the 1500m race with a timing of 4:15.89 and losing the 5000m gold to Seema after finishing in 16:03.23.

However, just a month later she beat Seema at the South Asian Senior Athletics Championships in Ranchi with an eye-catching time of 15:38.70 to win the 5000m gold. She also edged Sri Lanka’s Arachch Nimali to win the 1500m gold with a timing of 4:25.36.

If the charge stays, Sanjana is likely to lose all four medals won during this period.

After her medal wins, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) wanted the Haryana athlete to shift to Bengaluru for training, however she has been very reluctant to leave her home training base in Rohtak.

A source close to Sanjana told The Tribune that they will fight this charge. “We received the notice on November 6 and then we asked for a few days’ extension to reply,” the source said.

“We are trying to get a lawyer to fight this charge. However, I must say this notice cannot be right as she has not taken any banned substance as a supplement or otherwise. We were alarmed that an athlete came to know about this notice days before it reached us. How is that possible? Again, a lot of things that happened before this NADA (National Anti-Doping Agency) notice raises eyebrows. Unfortunately, we will have to fight this and we will,” he added.