India's veteran discus thrower Neelam Jaswant Singh tested positive for a banned drug, adding a sordid and shameful chapter to the country's disappointing campaign in the 10th World Athletics Championships in Helsinki, Finland.
After a series of dope scandals in the last Asian Games in Busan and Olympic Games in Athens, the 34-year-old Neelam became the latest to join the list of offenders when she tested positive for pemoline -- a banned stimulant -- and has been provisionally suspended by the sport's world governing body.
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The athlete, ranked 26th in the world, not only became the first Indian to test positive in a world championship but was also the first in the Helsinki edition of the championship.
Neelam, who made it to the final in Paris World Championships in 2003, hardly made an impact this time managing to hurl the discus to a distance of only 56.70 m, far below her personal best of 64.55 which won her a gold medal in the 2002 Busan Asiad.
Following the finding, the International Association of Athletics Federations Saturday said the athlete has been provisionally suspended. The test was conducted in-competition in Helsinki on August 7.
Reacting to the news, AFI Secretary Lalit Bhanot wondered how such a senior athlete could test positive.
"I am surprised that a senior athlete like Neelam is caught. She can fight her case but as of now she stands suspended," Bhanot said in New Delhi.
"Being a top athlete, Neelam is always under the scanner of the authorities [World Anti Doping Agency]. She was tested at Patiala and Ludhiana [during the National Circuit Meets] and cleared the tests," said Bhanot who had also travelled to Helsinki to attend an IAAF meeting.
India had sent a three-member squad to Helsinki which also included Paris bronze medallist in women's long jump Anju Bobby George and men's discus thrower Vikas Gowda. While Anju finished fifth, the two discus throwers -- Neelam and Vikas -- went out in the preliminary round.
Neelam's case is the latest in a series of doping offences by Indian sportspersons which saw Sunita Rani getting caught in Busan before she was exonerated following loopholes in the laboratory report. At last year's Athens Olympics, it were the weightlifters who brought disgrace to the country. First, Pratima Kumari was caught for using a banned steroid in a pre-competition test in Athens and later Sanamacha Chanu tested positive during the competition for using a banned diuretic.
Chanu was the third Indian lifter to test positive in the one year after S Sunaina and Kumari and it led to a one-year ban on Indian lifters by the sport's world governing body.
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