Top discus thrower Navjeet Kaur Dhillon in dope net

The latest to join the hall of shame is the country’s No.1 woman discus thrower, Navjeet Kaur Dhillon, who has returned an adverse analytical finding for testosterone (S1.1 anabolic agents). Navjeet, hailing from Pun- jab’s Amritsar, was tested out of competition outside India by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) prior to the Eugene World Championships. It’s been learnt that the AIU team collected Navjeet’s sample in Kazakhstan’s Al- maty.

The 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games bronze medallist has been suspended provisionally for her dope failure and has dropped out of the national camp at NIS Patiala. Navjeet, who rose to fame with her 2014 World Junior Athletics Championships bronze medal, had finished a disappointing eighth out of 11 finalists in the women’s discus throw competition at the Birmingham CWG, with a below-par throw of 53.51m in her sixth and final attempt. Navjeet was the second Indian athlete after Seema Punia to win a medal at the IAAF World juniors.

In June this year, Navjeet had won the gold medal at the Kosanov Memorial athletics meet in Almaty with an effort of 56.24m. The 27-year-old’s dope failure has come as a setback to the country’s fight to eradicate the menace from Indian sports. Earlier this month, the Parliament had passed the National Anti-Doping Bill 2022 to provide for a statutory framework in the form of legislation for prohibition of doping in sports and enforcing anti-doping activities in the country.