Fastest woman sprinter from India, Dutee Chand fails dope test, banned for 4 years

India’s fastest female sprinter Dutee Chand has failed two out-of-competition dope tests for Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators (SARMs) conducted by National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) in Bhubaneswar in December, 2022. As a result, she has been banned from participating in any athletic competition within or outside India for a period of 4 years.

According to a report, the ban on Dutee will be effective retrospectively from January 3, 2023. The athlete from Odisha will get 21 days to file a review plea with the anti-doping panel from the date of receiving the letter of her ban. She was put under provisional suspension in January this year.

Dutee is the fastest Indian female athlete. She broke the national record by sprinting for 100m within just 11.17s at the Indian Grand Prix (IGP) 4 in Patiala in June 2021.

In June last year, Dutee, who won two silver medals in 100m and 200m in the 2018 Asian Games, recorded her season-best performance by clocking 11.40s in the semifinals of the National Inter-State Athletics Championships in Chennai but eventually lost the gold medal to Hima Das in the final. However, this year, Dutee has been out of competition since January as she had been provisionally suspended by NADA who were awaiting the result of her dope tests. In a letter issued to the star Indian sprinter on January 3 by NADA, Dutee was informed that she has tested positive for a test conducted in Bhubaneswar on December 5, 2022. She again tested positive for banned substances on December 26, 2022.

The sample from the first test showed the presence of anabolic agents such as andarine, ostarine and ligandrol, while the second sample also found the presence of andarine and ostarine.

On Thursday, Chaitanya Mahajan, chairman of the Anti Doping Disciplinary Panel (ADDP), passed his order and said, “All the competitive results obtained by the athlete from the date of her sample collection, which was December 5, 2022, shall stand disqualified with all resulting consequences including forfeiture of medals, points and prizes.” According to the ADDP, Dutee ‘didn’t cross check the contents of the drugs with the latest published lists of prohibited substances by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)’, and she ‘was not able to establish no significant fault or negligence’. Moreover, Dutee consumed the medicines as prescribed by her physiotherapist instead of seeking advice from a qualified physician.

Dutee says no to ‘B’ sample testing

Despite all this, Dutee did not opt for the option of going for a ‘B’ sample testing within a period of seven days from the date of receiving such notice which resulted in her provisional suspension by NADA in January. She will now get 21 days to file a review plea with the Anti-Doping Panel (ADAP) from the date of receiving the letter of her ban.

Dutee is currently not a part of the Indian national camp.

Earlier this year, several athletes including the 400m champion Anjali Devi, Federation Cup gold medal-winning discus thrower Kirpal Singh and 2020 National women’s 59kg champion lifter Erra Deexitha are among the notable names who failed dope tests. This week, Bhawna Jat, who was India’s lone female athlete in the 20km race walk at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, had been brought back home for her three whereabouts failures for dope tests within 12 months.

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