2023-09-28 12:20:28
By Le Figaro with AFP
Published 5 hours ago, Updated now
The 100m final. Capture
LE SCAN SPORT – Officers from India’s National Anti-Doping Agency showed up at the championships at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and the number of participants on the third and final day of the competition on Tuesday halved.
A sprinter alone in the 100-meter final, an athlete who continues to run after the finish line to escape an anti-doping agent: the Delhi state athletics championships have turned into a farce, Indian authorities report athletics Wednesday.
Agents from the Indian National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) showed up on Tuesday at these championships organized at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in New Delhi the day after a video was broadcast on social media showing a locker room littered with syringes and boxes of drugs. Erythropoietin (EPO), a hormone that increases the concentration of red blood cells and improves sports performance.
Consequence: the number of participants on the third and final day of the competition, Tuesday, fell by half. And Lalit Kumar found himself alone running the 100-meter final, the seven other competitors having withdrawn, citing muscle tension or cramps.
«I was really looking forward to racing against the best, but no one came“, told the sprinter to the daily Indian Express. “Everyone was afraid to get tested. As an athlete, I feel very hurt and disappointed.»
The under-16 hammer throw final also had only one participant.
In the junior steeplechase event, a young girl increased her speed after crossing the finish line to escape an anti-doping officer chasing her to check her.
Several athletes also preferred not to attend the medal ceremony, fearing they would have to take doping tests, according to the newspaper.
The secretary of the Delhi Regional Athletics Federation, Sandeep Mehta, warned that agents of the anti-doping body were authorized to test those who disappeared. “We will ban positive athletes and also recommend that the National Athletics Federation do the same“, he added.
Indian sport has been shaken by numerous doping scandals on the sidelines of the Olympic Games, the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games. Some 45 athletes who tested positive have been suspended since the start of the year.
And according to the latest World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report, India ranks second in the list of countries with the highest number of anti-doping rule violations, behind Russia.
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