Road to Rio: Wrestler Narsingh Yadav to meet PM Modi today

Narsingh Yadav, who was cleared of doping charges by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of leaving for Rio to represent India in the Olympics.

The meeting comes after Yadav has thanked Prime Minister Modi for helping him in getting justice in the doping scandal.

"I am grateful to Narendra Modi for helping me get justice. I was always hopeful of getting justice and that is why I continued to train hard. I want to go to Rio and win a medal. I want to thank the public and media and everyone else who supported me and stood by the truth he told the media after the NADA ruling.

Ending weeks of suspense over Narsingh's Rio Olympics participation, the NADA had yesterday cleared the wrestler from the charges of violating anti-doping rules while pointing that he was a victim of sabotage perpetrated by a competitor.

Narsingh thanked the WFI chief for supporting him in his dreadful period and said that it was because of his backing that he continued his practice till now.

The order will now be sent to the United World Wrestling (UWW) so as to get approval about Narsingh's participation in the Summer Games.

The 26-year-old grappler, who bagged the quota with a bronze medal finish in last year's World Championships, tested positive for a banned anabolic steroid on both his 'A' and 'B' samples. He was placed under provisionally suspension since then.

However, the NADA cleared the way for Narsingh to participate in the forthcoming Rio Olympics saying that the one-time ingestion by the wrestler 'was not within his knowledge'.

"The panel is treating this as a single violation because the report of the sample taken on 25th June was not notified to him till the sample taken on July 5," the NADA said. "The panel concludes that the athlete deserves the benefit of Article 10.4 of the anti-doping rules of the NADA 2015 as there is no fault or negligence on his part and he is a victim of sabotage done by a competitor," the NADA panel had said.

Before the hearing, Narsingh had cried foul play, claiming that his food had been spiked and had filed an FIR at the Sonepat Police Station against two fellow wrestlers.

Narsingh was selected for the Rio Olympics in controversial circumstances as two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar had demanded for trials to determine who should go to the games. However, Narsingh was favoured for the same after fighting a lengthy legal battle with Sushil.