Davinder Singh Kang. (Twitter Photo)
NEW DELHI: Javelin thrower Davinder Singh Kang, who made the finals of the World Championships in 2017, has been caught in the dope net. His urine sample tested positive for a banned ‘specified substance’ dexamethasone – glucocorticoids, TOI has learnt.
Kang has been served the ‘adverse analytical finding’ (AAF) notice of charge by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) and the Jalandhar-born star athlete has accepted the optional provisional suspension.
Kang runs the risk of getting banned for life or eight years – the quantum is to be decided by the NADA’s disciplinary panel – as the Asian athletics bronze winner’s latest test will be counted as his second ‘anti-doping rule violation’ (ADRV). In March 2018, he was let off with a ‘reprimand’ by the disciplinary panel after testing positive for marijuana. It was considered Kang’s first doping offence.
In another development, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has approached the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against NADA’s Anti-Doping Appeals Panel’s (ADAP) decision to exonerate Olympian boxer Sumit Sangwan of doping charges in December last year. The CAS shared WADA‘s objections with both NADA and Sangwan earlier this week and has sought replies from them.
“We have proved Sangwan’s innocence before the NADA panel earlier and hope to do the same before CAS as well,” Sangwan’s lawyer Sourabh Mishra told TOI.
Meanwhile, Kang, who was told to leave the NIS Patiala camp a week ago by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), has been found guilty of not obtaining the mandatory ‘Therapeutic Use Exemption’ (TUE) to justify the presence of dexamethasone in his system.
He had declared certain medicines prescribed to him in his dope control form (DCF), but failed to obtain the TUE for them, which was a must. Kang also declared in his DCF that he was consuming ‘shilajit’ capsules.
Kang’s samples were collected ‘in-competition’ during the Indian Grand Prix-5, held in Patiala on August 16, 2019 but the lab report of his ‘A’ sample from Qatar’s Doha-based anti-doping laboratory came nearly one year after the sample collection.
