Ahead of the 2022 edition of the Commonwealth Games which is scheduled to be hosted by Birmingham, the Indian contingency has faced a major setback as they have been struck by dope test failures. Two Indian athletes S Dhanalakshmi and triple jumper Aishwarya Babu have tested positive for the usage of banned drugs.
The development comes 8 days ahead of the multi-national sporting event. Both the sprinters have been ruled out of the upcoming sporting event and have been handed provisional suspensions with immediate effect. The current edition of the Commonwealth Games is scheduled to be held from July 28 to August 8.
"Dhanalakshmi tested positive in a dope test conducted by AIU. She will not go for Birmingham CWG", said a top source privy to the development. The 24-year-old sprinter earlier tested positive for a banned steroid in a dope test conducted by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) of the World Athletics.
Dhanalakshmi was named in the CWG team for 100m and the 4x100m relay team along with the likes of Dutee Chand, Hima Das, and Srabani Nanda. She was also named in the Indian team for the ongoing World Championships in Eugene, USA, but failed to make it to the showpiece, ostensibly due to visa problems. Dhanalakshmi had recorded a personal best time of 22.89 seconds to win 200m gold at the Qosanov Memorial Athletics Meet on June 26. She had become only the third Indian woman to run sub-23s after national record holder Saraswati Saha (22.82s) and Hima Das (22.88s).
Apart from Dhanalakshmi, 24-year-old triple jumper Aishwarya Babu's dope sample was collected by the NADA officials during the National Inter-State Athletics Championships in Chennai last month and has now returned with a positive result. Aishwarya had smashed the triple jump national record with a stunning effort of 14.14m to emerge the undisputed star of the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships (June 10-14) in Chennai.
(Inputs from PTI)
