MYAS must arm anti-doping warriors by notifying commencement of 2022 Act

News that 400m runner Sneha Kolleri, who was part of the Indian Mixed 4x400m Relay team in the World Athletics Relays in Guanghzou, China, and selected to compete in the ongoing Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, Korea, tested positive for banned substance Stanozolol has confounded the athletics community.

The 26-year-old from Kerala became the third national athlete in two months to be placed on provisional suspension by anti-doping organisations. She not only joined Asian Games 10000m silver medalist Kartik Kumar and Shivpal Singh on the list of such athletes but also caused questions to be raised about the training environment. 

While Sneha Kolleri appears to have been tested at the World Athletics Relays, Asian Games 10000m silver medalist Kartik Kumar and Shivpal Singh’s samples showed up positive in out of competition tests conducted in what could be perceived as National camps – in Colorado Springs, USA, and Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports, Patiala, respectively.

Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports must soon notify the commencement of the National Anti-Doping Act 2022. It was passed by Parliament and received the President’s assent on August 12, 2022, but Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Mansukh Mandaviya told the Rajya Sabha on December 19 last that the commencement of the Act had not yet been notified.

It is possible that some provisions of the Act may have drawn criticism from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), but every effort should have been made by now to ensure that WADA’s concerns were addressed. For, anti-doping warriors are quite hamstrung without being empowered to conduct search and seizure operations in such camps.

Such instances of doping in National Centres of Excellence plague the sport and undermine the Athletics Federation of India and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports’ efforts to keep sport clean unless Government-funded athletes who are held guilty of Anti-Doping Rule Violations are made to pay fines – at least equivalent to the public spends on them.

Curiously, Sneha Kolleri told some sports writers that she had not travelled with the team to Korea for the Asian Athletics Championships because she was injured. Did she not realise that AIU would make news of her provisional suspension public? Javelin Thrower Shivpal Singh told The Tribune that he was not competing because he was not throwing the distance he wanted to. 

Road runners chasing prize money come under doping scanner

Meanwhile, Varsha Tekam became the sixth Indian runner to be charged with anti-doping rule violation charge by AIU. She also earned the dubious distinction of being the first Indian to be charged with evasion, refusal or failure to submit a sample. Four on the AIU list of Indians serving sanctions are those charged and penalised by National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA). 

She has joined Madhuri Kale on the list of athletes who are provisionally suspended by AIU. Pradhan Kirulkar, Vivek More, Archana Jadhav (all from Pune Half Marathon) and Rameshwar Munjal (Navy Half Marathon, Mumbai) are the other four who have been sanctioned periods of ineligibility by AIU.

If four runners in the Pune Half Marathon and two in the Navy Half Marathon have tested positive, it boggles the mind on athletes likely taking short cuts in road running events in distances ranging from 5km to marathon across the country. Three runners, who claimed National Cross Country Championships podium places in Meerut in January, also tested positive. 

A report published by RaceMart estimated 692 road running events were held in 2024-25, up from 651 the previous year. Nine of these were listed on the World Athletics calendar and 26 on the Association of International Marathons and Distance Running schedule. The report highlights 139 events in which the timing partners have made efforts to conceal the number of timed finishers. 

While the Athletics Federation of India has been considering the question of bringing all road running events under its ambit but has not taken any decisive action, there appears to be no self-regulation body either in road running despite the mushroom growth. Perhaps, it is time for event organisers to come together and address integrity issues plaguing the sport.

The RaceMart report revealed that there were 6,35,835 finishers in the 692 events in 2024-24. It probably indicates that there are between 75,000 and 100,000 runners. Even if a vast majority of them are those who participate for the joy of it, there are some who compete in these races to win prize money. Sadly, many of these are unaware of the risk of frequent competitive running.