WEIGHTLIFTER Sanjita Chanu Is Provisionally Under Suspension For Failing Dope Test

SANJITA Chanu Khumukcham aged 24 from Manipur, who won Gold Medallions in the recently  concluded Commonwealth Games in weightlifting in the 53kg category, has been suspended by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) following she was tested positive for testosterone. She is also India’s India’s third medal winner in the CWG held in Queensland, Australia, and the second gold medal for the nation after Mirabai Chanu’s win in the same event. Chanu, who lifted a total of 192kg to win her second Commonwealth Games gold medal, had finished on top even in Glasgow 2014 with a total lift of 173 kg, making the Gold Coast medal her second Commonwealth Gold. Speaking to reporters, she claimed to be innocent and will challenge the punitive action taken against her by IWF .She insisted that she is innocent claiming “I have not taken any banned substance. I will challenge this with the help of the national federation; she added. The sample was taken during an out-of-competition test prior to the World Championship in Anaheim (US) in November last year. Fortunately, The Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF) President Sahdev Yadav has come forward to back her. He was also was confident of the promising weightlifter’s innocence. There is no plausible reason in pronouncing the dope result after a long period.  After the sample was taken, she competed in the World Championship in November last and then she won gold in the Gold Coast CWG in April. We will fight it out why this is happening,” he said, “told DD.The IWLF has intimated IWF that would undertake  ‘B’ sample test. IWLF will hire a top lawyer to present the case at the hearing in the international federation. She has not taken any banned drugs. Federation  is hopeful to prove her innocence, Yadav added.Replying  to a query Yadav  said that there was no danger of India losing the gold medal won by Sanjita in the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in April. She lifted a total of 192kg to win that gold in 53kg category. She had also won a gold in the 48kg category in the 2014 CWG in Glasgow. If Sanjita’s ‘B’ sample also tests positive, she could be handed a four-year ban from the sport.Sanjita had taken part in the 53kg class in the World Championship last year, finishing 13th with a total lift of 177kg. The 24-year-old was, on May 9, included in the Sports Ministry’s Target Olympic Podium Scheme for her Asian Games preparations. But her name is expected to be struck off from the list if she is finally ruled to have committed the dope offence. The new rules state that any nation with 20 or more doping violations from 2008 to 2020 will have just one man and one woman at the Games. Countries with 10-19 doping violations over that same period will be limited to two men and two women in Tokyo. At least nine more countries, including Bulgaria, Iran and India fall into that category. This decision to limit Olympic quotas, however, will not have much impact on India as the country has not been sending more than two weightlifters each in men and women’s sections in the Olympics during the past few editions. Before Sanjita, 12 Indian weightlifters had returned positive in tests conducted by the international federation since 2008 blackening their careers and bringing disrepute to their motherland.