21 Indian weightlifters caught in doping, face bans

Mumbai, Apr 5: The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) has caught 21 weightlifters in five championships held recently, which could well turn out to be the biggest doping scandal in the country, as per reports in dnaindia.com. All the 21 lifters have been provisionally suspended by the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) pending inquiry and most of them belong to Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, which may dent the progress of the state in the sport.

The lifters might face a four-year ban as per the new World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for first-time offenders in a scenario where their 'B' samples also tests positive. The substances for which the athletes have been found guilty falls in the non-specified category of WADA.

The tests were conducted both out-of-competition and in-competition. The highest numbers of positive cases happened during the National Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships held in January earlier this year.