Ramesh among coaches provisionally suspended as NADA wages war against doping

The provisional suspension of three coaches, including Dronacharya Award winning Nagapuri Ramesh, has sent shock waves. Karamveer Singh and he will become the first coaches to be charged with complicity while Rakesh will become the first coach after Mickey Menezes to be charged with administration of a prohibited substance into an athlete’s body.

The charge against Ramesh may be tied to those of evasion laid against Andhra Pradesh sprinters Nalabothu Shanmugha Srinivas  and Chelimo Pratusha. It is being said that they train at the centre where Ramesh offers coaching to many athletes across age groups. Pankaj, the only other sprinter who has been provisionally suspended for evasion, is from Haryana.

The other track and field athletes charged with evasion include distance runners Jyoti (Uttar Pradesh), who won the women’s 10000m in the recent Indian Open Meet in Ranchi, and Kuldeep Singh (Delhi) who has not competed since October 2023, Khelo India 2023 Youth Games steeplechase winner Paras Singhal and his Haryana distance running team-mate, Kiran as well as Uttar Pradesh Long Jumper Pooja Rani. 

That more than a third of the 37 provisional suspensions handed over so far in 2025 are for evasion (9), tampering (1), complicity (2) and administration of prohibited substance (1) indicates that the National Anti-Doping Agency has scaled its war against doping at least a couple of notches.

The 27-year-old Ranjeet Bhati, who took part in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games Javelin Throw competition, became the first athlete in more than a decade to be charged with tampering or attempt to tamper with doping control. It is significant that out of the hundreds of athletes penalised for anti-doping rule violations, only three have been sanctioned for tampering. 

In December 2012, swimmer Rajib Chakraborty was given a two-year ban for tampering or attempt to tamper sample. In October next, ADDPs handed a three-year ineligibility period to Shailendra Kumar (athletics) for testing positive for banned substances and tampering with doping control and a two-year ban to Durgesh Khare for similar rule violations.

Besides these 13 cases of evasion, complicity, tampering and administration, provisional suspensions have been handed to 10 athletes who were tested during the National Games in Dehradun. Three medalists in the National Cross Country Championships in Meerut and one from the Elite Men’s National Boxing Championships in Bareilly 

National Games gold medalists Gagandeep Singh (Services, men’s Discus throw), R Arockiya Alish (Tamil Nadu, women’s +87kg) and bronze medalists Neeraj Joshi (Uttarkhand, Wushu Sanda men’s 52kg), Abdullah Bin Jaweed Al Jabri (Telangana, Boxing men’s +92kg) and Warish Deep Singh (Punjab, Cycling men’s Team Sprint) are part of that list.

Amritpal Singh (Punjab, men’s Basketball) and Shubham Kumar (Uttar Pradesh, men’s Kabaddi) were part of gold medal winning teams. Kabaddi players Vishal (Haryana men) and Harjot Kaur (Punjab women) as Uttarakhand’s Wushu Sanda athlete Rahul Tomar are the others whose samples given at the National Games tested positive.

NADA’s intelligence and investigation team must lend its shoulder to the wheel by identifying the supply chain – and that can be attempted with the athletes who admit to doping and secure reduced sanctions. Besides, NADA must also update the data faster than it does at the moment, strengthening its messaging to those who believe that short cuts can be of assistance. 

There can be no question that NADA needs to publish lists of athletes placed on provisional suspensions, list of athletes who admit committing ant-doping rule violations under case resolution agreements and lists of athletes serving bans imposed by the National Anti-Doping Disciplinary and Appeal Panels.

Not long ago, NADA used to publish a comprehensive list of all ineligible athletes. These would include athletes who are banned by other anti-doping organisations as well. That list would be the only list that sports organisers would have to consult when accepting entries for competitions. But, for reasons best known to NADA, that list has been discontinued.