A day after Narsingh Yadav was exonerated of doping charges by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), his hopes of participating in the upcoming Olympics received further boost with the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) backing the wrestler's Rio bid.
The clean chit given to Yadav by NADA has to be approved by three parties to ensure his ticket to Rio: United World Wrestling (UWW), which is wrestling's world body, International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
After Yadav failed his dope test last week, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) had named Praveen Rana as replacement in his 74kg-category for the Olympics. However, WFI is now confident that none of the three organisations will block Yadav's Olympics dream, especially after getting IOA's nod.
The IOC leaves it to national Olympic committees to decide on replacing athletes, which means the responsibility falls on the IOA's lap.
"We have received IOA's approval today (Tuesday) to send Yadav for the Olympics," WFI secretary Vinod Tomar told dna.
"As for the UWW, we are awaiting their formal approval and are hopeful of getting it by Wednesday. We had sent them an email only on Monday evening, informing them about the situation. They will go through it and we should hear something back by Wednesday," Tomar added.
The final piece of the puzzle is WADA, which can appeal against NADA's all-clear signal to Yadav. On Tuesday, WADA said they have requested the case file from NADA and will "review the case".
However, Tomar was confident that WADA will back NADA's verdict. "WADA would have raised an objection only if Yadav had been given a penalty or had got away lightly. In this case, he has been given a complete clean chit by NADA. So, it shouldn't be a problem," Tomar said.
No injustice will be done: Modi tells Yadav
Narsingh Yadav on Tuesday met prime minister Narendra Modi, who asked him to focus on winning a medal at the Olympics without distractions. "The prime minister gave his best wishes to me and asked me to be carefree and participate in Olympics without any tension. He asked me to focus on winning medals for the country. He also assured me that no injustice will be done to me," Yadav said after the meeting.
Inderjeet fails B sample test as well
Shot putter Inderjeet Singh's confirmatory B sample also returned positive for banned substances, virtually ending his hopes to compete in the Rio Olympics. Twenty eight-year-old Inderjeet's A sample had returned positive for banned steroids androsterone and etiocholanolone on June 25, and now his B sample has also tested positive for the same substances. Inderjeet will have to appear before the NADA disciplinary panel for a hearing, where he will be given a chance to present his case.
