India’s top woman discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur, who finished sixth at the Tokyo Olympics in August 2021, has tested positive for a prohibited substance in a test conducted by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), the body announced on Wednesday. Kaur, 26, has been handed a provisional suspension after testing positive for the banned anabolic steroid Stanozolol, AIU said on its website. AIU is an independent body of World Athletics that deals with integrity issues. The athlete from Punjab will remain suspended while seeking the testing of her B sample and a further hearing. Kaur can also accept the initial finding from the A sample testing and waive the second test and related proceedings. If found guilty, she faces a ban of up to four years. Kaur is in the World Athletics Registered Testing Pool (RTP) programme for 2022. The AIU announcement comes following days of intense speculation that the thrower has failed a dope test. She had denied the initial reports and the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) had not commented on the issue.

Kaur’s doping case is one of the biggest in Indian athletics and could not have come at a worse time. There is less than three months to go for the world athletics championships in Eugene, Oregon and the big year of competitions includes the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games.

AIU posted Kamalpreet’s case on its website and tweeted: “The AIU has provisionally suspended discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur of India for the presence/use of a prohibited substance (Stanozolol), a breach of the @World Athletics anti-doping rules.” AIU website mentions the date as March 29.

          Source: HT