A slew of dope circumstances rocked Indian athletics with junior nationwide crew chief coach Ramesh Nagpuri suspended by the NADA for “complicity” in doping whereas seven athletes have been additionally in dock for “evading” checks .
Two extra coaches — Karamveer Singh and Rakesh — have been additionally suspended for “complicity” and “administration of prohibited substances” respectively.
The seven athletes suspended for “evasion” within the newest checklist of dope offenders printed by the Nationwide Anti-Doping Company (NADA) have been Paras Singhal, Pooja Rani, Nalubothu Shanmuga Sreenivas, Chelimi Pratusha, Shubham Mahara, Kiran and Jyoti.
The 19-year-old Singhal had gained the boys’ 2,000m steeplechase for Haryana on the Khelo India Youth Video games in 2024. Sreenivas gained a silver every in 200m within the Federation Cup, Nationwide Inter-State Championships and Nationwide Open in 2024.
Nagpuri, based mostly on the Sports activities Authority of India Centre in Hyderabad and appointed junior chief coach by Athletics Federation of India (AFI) in 2023, is a famend Dronacharya Awardee coach.
He has been suspended underneath Article 2.9 of the NADA Anti-Doping Guidelines of 2021, which offers with ‘Complicity or tried complicity by an athlete or different Particular person’.
Below this text, ‘Aiding, encouraging, aiding, abetting, conspiring, masking up or another kind of intentional complicity or tried complicity involving an anti-doping rule violation, tried anti-doping rule violation or violation of Article 10.14.1 by one other particular person (together with both bodily or psychological help” will represent a doping offence.’
In response to sources, Nagpuri allegedly helped two athletes keep away from getting examined by dope assortment officers (DCOs) despatched by the NADA on the SAI Hyderabad Centre.
He has coached prime sprinter and ladies’s 100m nationwide report holder Dutee Chand in addition to Deepthi Jeevanji, the 2024 Paralympics bronze winner and reigning world champion (in 400m T20 classification).
When contacted Nagpuri declined to touch upon the matter.
“I do not wish to touch upon this. I’ve been serving Indian athletics to the perfect of my skills,” he stated.
AFI officers additionally refused to remark, saying that it is the NADA which has to take care of the matter.
It isn’t the primary time that an athletics coach has been penalised for doping-related offences.
In November 2022, the Nationwide Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (ADDP) imposed a four-year ban and a positive of ₹50,000 on Mumbai-based athletics coach Mickey Menezes for injecting prohibited substance Drostanolone into his trainee Kirti Bhoite, who additionally was handed a two-year ban.
Karamveer has been suspended for the same cost as Nagpuri, whereas Rakesh’s offence comes underneath Article 2.8, which reads ‘Administration or tried administration by an athlete or different Particular person to any athlete in-competition of any prohibited substance or prohibited technique, or administration or tried administration to any athlete out-of-competition of any prohibited substance or any prohibited technique that’s prohibited out-of-competition.”
The seven athletes suspended have been charged underneath Article 2.3, which associated to ‘Evading, refusing or failing to undergo pattern assortment by an athlete with out compelling justification after notification by a duly licensed particular person’.
Curiously, the AFI lately initiated the method to obligatory registration of coaches within the nation, admitting the “involvement of the coaches in doping of their wards”.
Throughout its Annual Common Physique Assembly in Chandigarh in January, the AFI determined to make it obligatory for all coaches — certified and unqualified — within the nation to register on its portal from this season onwards in the event that they wish to proceed to coach athletes to participate in competitions underneath the nationwide physique.
The coaches who don’t register themselves with the AFI shall be blacklisted.
That is along with the formation of an anti-doping cell to establish coaches suspected to be “concerned in doping of their wards” and drawing up an inventory of coaching centres which function “hideouts” for cheats on the advice of a high-powered committee to take care of the menace.
The AFI will share this intelligence with the NADA and Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) established by World Athletics.
The AFI had, in truth, began the registration course of however discovered numerous coaches reluctant to register.
Alarmed on the rising doping circumstances in athletics, the AFI had arrange a high-powered committee headed by Delhi Police Particular Cell Commissioner Sagarpreet Hooda to look into the doping problem and its suggestions have been printed.
Revealed – April 20, 2025 09:35 am IST
