National swimming champ, two others fail dope test

In a major embarrassment for the country ahead of the October 3-14 Commonwealth Games (CWG), three swimmers, including national champion Richa Mishra, have tested positive for a performance enhancing drug.

The news comes within days of wrestlers and athletes testing positive for such drugs, and has been received with shock by the country’s swimming fraternity, which has had a clean image as far as top swimmers are concerned.

The three swimmers, including Jyotsna Pansari and Amar Muralidharan, are part of the CWG squad and have been provisionally suspended by the National Anti-Doping Agency (Nada), which conducted the tests.

Mishra was adjudged the best woman swimmer at the Senior National Aquatics Championship held in Jaipur last month. Her sample and those of the other two proved positive for methylhexaneamine — a stimulant banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency this year — after 39 swimmers were tested by Nada at the event.

Methylhexaneamine is used as a nasal decongestant, as well as in treatment for diseased oral tissues.
Nada director-general Rahul Bhatnagar said the three swimmers have been asked to report for their B-sample testing at the earliest.

Swimming Federation of India (SFI) secretary Virender Nanavati said the swimmers will be withdrawn from the team if their B samples too turn out positive.

The swimmers were to report to the national camp scheduled to begin from September 6 in Delhi. “The results are obviously shocking, but it is at least a good sign that the sport is becoming cleaner. The federation will take a call on stripping Richa of her senior national title,” national swimming coach Pradeep S Kumar told DNA.

Mishra, 25, from Delhi, has been in the limelight for over a decade and has been national champion six times. She is an employee of Delhi Police. Muralitharan, who is coached by his father in Pune, had failed a dope test for high levels of testosterone in 2003, but was later cleared after a six-month ban. Pansari was training in the US till August 16, before she joined prominent swimming coach Nihar Ameen in Bangalore ahead of the senior nationals.

Replacements for Mishra and Pansari have not been announced by the SFI. Fariha Zaman, who is closest to Pansari’s mark, could make it to the relay events while Shikha Tandon, an Olympian who is training in the US and did not take part in the senior nationals — where the CWG trials were conducted — could replace Mishra.
Arjuna awardee Nisha Millet said the swimmers failing the dope test is inexcusable.

“There is no question of not knowing what drug is banned or not because all swimmers are handed a banned-drugs book. Also, banned substances are clearly mentioned on the website of FINA (the international governing body of aquatic events).”

Six wrestlers and two athletes have already tested positive, also for methylhexaneamine, in random testing conducted by Nada during the trials in Patiala and have been provisionally suspended by their federations.

Wrestlers Sumit (74kg), Mausam Khatri (96kg) and Rajiv Tomar (120kg) in the men’s freestyle and Gursharanpreet Kaur (72kg) in the women’s section were part of the CWG squad and have been replaced.

The two athletes who returned positive are shot putter Saurabh Vij and discus thrower Akash Antil.