Narsingh Yadav’s Rio Dream Over, Banned For 4 Years by CAS

Narsingh Yadav’s dream of competing in the Rio Olympics has come to an end.

Narsingh Yadav. (Photo: Reuters)

Narsingh Yadav’s Olympic dream came to an end after the Court for Arbitration for Sport (CAS) banned the wrestler for four years.

The CAS upheld the World Anti Doping Agency’s (WADA) appeal against the clean chit given to him by the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) in a doping violation case.

WADA filed an urgent application before the CAS ad hoc Division to challenge the decision of NADA India to exonerate Narsingh Yadav following two positive anti-doping tests with methandienone on June 25 and July 5. The athlete asserted that he was the victim of sabotage (food/drink tampering) by another person. WADA requested that a four-year period of ineligibility be imposed on the athlete.

Court for Arbitration for Sport’s Statement

“The CAS panel did not accept the argument of the athlete that he was the victim of sabotage and noted that there was no evidence that he bore no fault, nor that the anti-doping rule violation was not intentional. Therefore the standard four-year period of ineligibility was imposed by the panel,” the statement added.

(Photo: AP)

Narsingh has been preparing for the Olympics in Rio. The wrestler attended the weigh-in for his event (men’s freestyle 74 kg) as well, which was set to begin on Friday. But, unfortunately, just one day before his competition, the wrestler has been banned for four years.

The news will come as a shock to not only the wrestler but the the entire country (India) as Narsingh was one of the medal contenders.

After testing positive for two dope tests, which was conducted on 25 June and 5 July respectively, Narsingh had claimed that his food or supplements was sabotaged by a rival.

However, since nobody owned up to doing so and Narsingh’s party was not able to prove that the wrestler’s food was sabotaged, the CAS had no choice but to ban the 27-year-old.

While the decision may well be for the better for sport, if even a shred of doubt remains on Narsingh’s innocence, it cannot go without saying that the handling of the entire matter by WADA has been lackluster at best.

The National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) had cleared Narsingh of all charges of doping in the beginning of this month, but WADA appealed against the wrestler’s clean chit only three days before his bout.

The Wrestling Federation of India didn’t even have the time to fly down their lawyer to the venue of the hearing.

The lawyer had to attend the hearing through teleconferencing.

Did this really need to be dragged to the day before his fight?