NADA admits to goof-up in wrestler's doping case, apologises

The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) on Saturday apologised for wrongly attributing a wrestler caught for doping as a U-23 World Championships medallist.

Wrestler Ravinder Kumar was on Friday banned for four years for failing a dope test but the NADA created confusion by identifying him as a world U-23 silver medallist which was not the case.

It was Ravinder Dahiya -- not Ravinder Kumar -- who had won a silver medal in the U-23 World Championships last year. Ravinder Dahiya said he had not been tested by the NADA.

The NADA posted a statement on its official social media page on Saturday and admitted to have made the goof-up.

"Error Clarification: This is to inform you all that we recently posted an order by the Anti- Doping Disciplinary Panel (ADDP) against Mr. Ravinder Kumar. This is to clarify that he is not the same Ravinder Kumar who won a silver medal in the U-23 World Championship last year," the NADA said.

"It was a case of mistaken identity and we sincerely apologise for it," it added.

On Friday, the NADA said in a statement that wrestler Ravinder Kumar caught for doping had won a silver at the Under-23 World Championships last year.

The statement was later taken down by NADA from its official social media page and a clarification was issued instead.

The dope sample of the wrestler who failed the test was collected by the Doping Control Officer of the NADA during the 67th All India Police Wrestling Cluster Championship in Jaipur in February-March last year.

He was banned for four years from the date of his provisional suspension, which was May 14 last year.

The Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel of the NADA also directed that all competitive results obtained by Ravinder Kumar from the date of his sample collection be disqualified with all resulting consequences including forfeiture of medals, points and prizes.