NDTL put under review by WADA in Kang's case: athletics' anti-doping watchdog

Javelin thrower Davinder Singh Kang has recently been cleared of doping charges by the Athletics Integrity Unit, but that case had put the National Dope Testing Laboratory under the scanner of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

Kang, a competitor of star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra a few years back, was handed a provisional suspension in 2017 after his urine samples returned positive for anabolic steroids. The sample was collected out-of-competition on November 10, 2017 at Patiala by the AIU and was tested at the WADA-accredited NDTL here.

But he was recently cleared of doping charges by both the AIU and WADA after the NDTL withdrew the adverse analytical finding issued to his urine sample.

In a detailed decision of the case uploaded in the AIU website, it was revealed that during the pendency of the case before the IAAF Disciplinary Tribunal, the NDTL was brought under the review of WADA.

"On 14 February 2019, the AIU received a letter from WADA in which WADA advised that it was conducting a review of the analytical performance of the Laboratory, including in connection with the AAF," the AIU decision said.

"On 1 March 2019, the AIU received a letter from the Laboratory dated 28 February 2019 in which the Laboratory announced that it was withdrawing the AAF issued for the Sample having undertaken a further review of the analytical results with WADA," it added.

But it's not clear what was the outcome of the review even as the WADA considered Kang's case as closed.

"On 1 March 2019, WADA confirmed by letter to the AIU that the AAF for the Sample had been withdrawn by the Laboratory and that WADA considered the case closed. WADA notified the AIU in the same letter to discontinue the disciplinary proceedings against the Athlete with immediate effect."