A slew of dope cases rocked Indian athletics with junior national team chief coach Ramesh Nagpuri suspended by the NADA for “complicity” in doping while seven athletes were also in dock for “evading” tests .
Two more coaches — Karamveer Singh and Rakesh — were also suspended for “complicity” and “administration of prohibited substances” respectively.
The seven athletes suspended for “evasion” in the latest list of dope offenders published by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) were Paras Singhal, Pooja Rani, Nalubothu Shanmuga Sreenivas, Chelimi Pratusha, Shubham Mahara, Kiran and Jyoti.
The 19-year-old Singhal had won the boys’ 2,000m steeplechase for Haryana at the Khelo India Youth Games in 2024. Sreenivas won a silver each in 200m in the Federation Cup, National Inter-State Championships and National Open in 2024.
Nagpuri, based at the Sports Authority of India Centre in Hyderabad and appointed junior chief coach by Athletics Federation of India (AFI) in 2023, is a renowned Dronacharya Awardee coach.
He has been suspended under Article 2.9 of the NADA Anti-Doping Rules of 2021, which deals with ‘Complicity or attempted complicity by an athlete or other Person’.
Under this article, ‘Assisting, encouraging, aiding, abetting, conspiring, covering up or any other type of intentional complicity or attempted complicity involving an anti-doping rule violation, attempted anti-doping rule violation or violation of Article 10.14.1 by another person (including either physical or psychological assistance” will constitute a doping offence.’
According to sources, Nagpuri allegedly helped two athletes avoid getting tested by dope collection officers (DCOs) sent by the NADA at the SAI Hyderabad Centre.
He has coached top sprinter and women’s 100m national record holder Dutee Chand as well as Deepthi Jeevanji, the 2024 Paralympics bronze winner and reigning world champion (in 400m T20 classification).
When contacted Nagpuri declined to comment on the matter.
“I don’t want to comment on this. I have been serving Indian athletics to the best of my abilities,” he said.
AFI officials also refused to comment, saying that it’s the NADA which has to deal with the matter.
It’s not the first time that an athletics coach has been penalised for doping-related offences.
In November 2022, the National Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (ADDP) imposed a four-year ban and a fine of ₹50,000 on Mumbai-based athletics coach Mickey Menezes for injecting prohibited substance Drostanolone into his trainee Kirti Bhoite, who also was handed a two-year ban.
Karamveer has been suspended for a similar charge as Nagpuri, while Rakesh’s offence comes under Article 2.8, which reads ‘Administration or attempted administration by an athlete or other Person to any athlete in-competition of any prohibited substance or prohibited method, or administration or attempted administration to any athlete out-of-competition of any prohibited substance or any prohibited method that is prohibited out-of-competition.”
The seven athletes suspended were charged under Article 2.3, which related to ‘Evading, refusing or failing to submit to sample collection by an athlete without compelling justification after notification by a duly authorized person’.
Interestingly, the AFI recently initiated the process to mandatory registration of coaches in the country, admitting the “involvement of the coaches in doping of their wards”.
During its Annual General Body Meeting in Chandigarh in January, the AFI decided to make it mandatory for all coaches — qualified and unqualified — in the country to register on its portal from this season onwards if they want to continue to train athletes to take part in competitions under the national body.
The coaches who do not register themselves with the AFI will be blacklisted.
This is in addition to the formation of an anti-doping cell to identify coaches suspected to be “involved in doping of their wards” and drawing up a list of training centres which serve as “hideouts” for cheats on the recommendation of a high-powered committee to deal with the menace.
The AFI will share this intelligence with the NADA and Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) established by World Athletics.
The AFI had, in fact, started the registration process but found a large number of coaches reluctant to register.
Alarmed at the rising doping cases in athletics, the AFI had set up a high-powered committee headed by Delhi Police Special Cell Commissioner Sagarpreet Hooda to look into the doping issue and its recommendations have been published.
Published – April 20, 2025 09:35 am IST
