2 Indian athletes test positive for doping: NADA chief

New Delhi, March 13 : Two leading athletes — one of them an Asian Games medallist – have failed dope tests for performance enhancing drugs, said Navin Aggarwal, director general of the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA), here on Saturday.
Aggarwal didn’t reveal the names of the athletes whose B sample is yet to be tested, but said NADA had collected the urine and blood samples during the three Indian Grand Prix events in Patiala recently and the National Race Walking Championships in Ranchi.
Each sample taken is kept in two separate bottles — A and B. And if the A sample turns positive then athletes have the right to have their B samples tested.
The athletes, if proved guilty during NADA’s anti-doping disciplinary panel hearing, could face a four-year ban for the first doping offence.
Since the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) has suspended New Delhi’s National Anti Doping Laboratory (NDTL) for violating WADA guidelines for following lab protocol, the recent samples were tested in a foreign WADA accredited lab.
One of the two athletes who failed the dope test in February is a key member of the national women’s 4x400m relay team.