The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) has given a clean chit to wrestler Narsingh Yadav from doping charges, thereby allowing him to participate in Rio Olympics.
Amid raucous supporters of Narsingh, NADA director-general Navin Aggarwal read out the panel’s report that justified its verdict on the basis of Narsingh’s clean record, the quantity of prohibited substance found in the two samples (collected on June 25 and July 5) and the fact that no case of fault or negligence could be made out against the 26-year-old wrestler. The panel held marathon hearings for three days before arriving at the conclusion.
After more than a week of drama, which began with Narsingh testing positive for a banned anabolic steroid methandienone in tests conducted on June 25, NADA Director General Navin Agarwal put an end to the suspense on the wrestler’s fate by exonerating him on Monday.
Narsingh will have to clear a fresh dope test and get clearances from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC); the United World Wrestling (UWW) — the international body — must also agree to reinstate him.
“After Narsingh was given a clean chit by NADA, we immediately wrote a letter to the world body to reconsider his name in 74kg category. Today I am really delighted to announce that UWW has reverted back saying that Narsingh will be allowed to participate in the Olympics,” WFI president Singh said.
“Now they just need a confirmation letter from us and we have already sent it. So, there should not be any problem as far as the world body is concerned about Narsingh’s participation,” he added.
After studying the case, WADA can appeal against a decision of Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel or Appeals Panel of any of its member countries to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) within 21 days.
If WADA appeals against the decision of the disciplinary panel at the ad hoc division of the CAS, specifically constituted to render decisions quickly during the Olympics, Narsingh may have to wait some more days to know his fate regarding his participation in the Rio Games.
Earlier, Narsingh was exonerated of all the doping charges by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) — but that was not the silver lining for the wrestler. The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Wednesday supported the wrestler’s advent into Rio Olympics.
The WFI had sent wrestler Praveen Rana’s name as backup to make sure India held its quota in the 74kg freestyle category. However, Brij Bhushan had told informed that he had contacted UWW on June 25 and requested them to review Narsingh’s entry.
However, the NADA clearing is only the first hurdle for Narsingh; the clean chit has to be approved by the International Olympic Committeee (IOC) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
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