Big Blow To Odisha’s Dutee Chand Ahead Of Asian Games As She Fails Dope Test

Bhubaneswar: Ace sprinter from Odisha Dutee Chand was handed a provisional suspension on Wednesday after testing positive for prohibited anabolic steroids.

The ‘A’ sample of the 26-year-old athlete, which was collected out-of-competition on December 5 last year, has tested positive for ‘andarine’, ‘ostarine’ and ‘ligandrol’, news reports said quoting National Anti-doping Agency (NADA).

“I do hereby inform you that your sample A was tested at the NDTL (National Dope Testing Laboratory) in accordance with the procedure set out in WADA’s (World Anti-Doping Agency) International Standard of Laboratories and was returned with adverse analytical findings,” the letter said.

It also warned Dutee about the potential consequences and resulting disciplinary process.

Following this suspension, Dutee would not be able to compete in the 2023 Asian Games in China, which was earlier postponed due to COVID pandemic. The sportsperson, however, has the option of asking for a test of her Sample B.

“I am completely unaware about this. I have received no information from anybody on any positive test. I cannot take any steps about this without knowing the details. I will have to see where the test was conducted and then act accordingly,” Dutee was quoted as saying.

She further claimed that the letter doing the rounds on social media is a fake one since it neither has a memo number nor any official signature and was an attempt to tarnish her image.

The sprinter currently holds the national record in 100m sprint and 4*100m relay sprint along with Dhanalakshmi Sekar, Hima Das and Archana Suseendran. She had finished second in both the 100m and 200m events at the 2018 Asian Games.