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Priyanka axed from relay team after positive test
NEW DELHI: Priyanka Panwar, a top 400m runner of the country, failed a dope test and became the third top athlete to miss the flight to Rio de Janeiro after shot
NEW DELHI: Priyanka Panwar, a top 400m runner of the country, failed a dope test and became the third top athlete to miss the flight to Rio de Janeiro after shot putter Inderjit Singh and sprinter Dharambir Singh were dropped following positive tests for performance enhancing drugs.
Panwar was a member of the core group of 400m runners who were preparing for Rio since 2015. Her positive test belies the Athletics Federation of India’s (AFI) contention that athletes in the national camp are clean.
She tested positive for the stimulant mephentermine during the Inter-State Athletics Championships held at Hyderabad from June 28 to July 2, Sports Authority of India sources told HT.
Though she skipped the individual 400m race there, she was a member of the national 4x400m relay team (C Group). Her team finished third.
The Railways athlete has waived the B sample test. This is her second offence, and hence if found guilty, she would face a ban of eight years.
In 2011, she had tested positive for an anabolic steroid. She was among six top women quarter-milers who failed dope tests then and were banned for two years.
Panwar, 28, was selected for the Rio-bound relay team, but was later dropped and replaced by Ashwini Akkunji.
She was part of the core group of runners who were training for Rio in the past 18 months, but her performance wasn’t impressive last year. In fact, she skipped domestic meets on the pretext of injury or family problem. However, she still got the AFI’s nod to be part of the national squad which went on an exposure tour to Turkey to prepare for Rio.
After she returned from the two-year ban in 2013, she was selected to the national camp and included in the relay squad for the Incheon Asian Games, which won gold clocking 3min 28.68sec. Other members of the squad were Tintu Luka, Mandeep Kaur and MR Poovamma.
Her doping episode casts a shadow on the other members of the relay team now in Rio. Barring a few in India’s track and field contingent, others have failed to even repeat their recent performances.
