Athlete Gomathi tests positive for banned substance

Athlete Gomathi Marimuthu, winner of womens 800m gold medal at at the Doha Asian Championships last month, has been tested positive for a banned substance norandrosterone, which is an anabolic steroid.

Following this, the 30-year-old athlete has provisionally been suspended. On proven guilty, Gomathi could be stripped of her medal beside being handed a four-year ban.

Her urine sample was collected by the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) during the Federation Cup (March 13-15) in Patiala. It was tested at the National Dope Testing Laboratory, recently, after the Doha event.

"Marimathu is the first positive test," an Athletics Federation of India (AFI) official was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

The athlete from Tamil Nadu was supposed to join the ongoing relay camp in Spala (Poland) under chief coach Galina Bukharina. But her flight ticket has been cancelled and she has been told to leave the national camp in Bengaluru.

Meanwhile, her coach Jaswinder Singh Bhatia, under whom she was training in Bengaluru, has distanced himself from the controversy. "After the Federation Cup, she was selected for the camp. She was with me for a short duration as she had to participate in confirmatory trials at Patiala on April 13. From there, she went to Doha," Bhatia said.

--IANS

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