Indian Javelin Thrower Handed 10-Year Ban For Second Doping Offence

Former Asian silver medallist javelin thrower and Olympian Shivpal Singh has been handed a 10-year suspension by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) Disciplinary Panel for a second doping offence after testing positive for the banned substance methandienone.

At 31, it could mean the end of a career for the javelin thrower, who competed at the Tokyo Olympics.

Shivpal, whose best achievement in his career is the silver medal he had won at the 2019 Asian Championships in Doha while throwing his personal best of 86.23m, is not the only Indian athlete to face action in recent cases.

Sprinter MV Jilna has been provisionally suspended for a second offence after testing positive for mephentermine.

Earlier, in 2021, Shivpal's dope sample had tested positive for a steroid in an out-of-competition test.

The Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel of NADA, in August 2022, had handed him a four-year ban beginning from 2021, holding him guilty of committing a doping offence.

He was to serve the ban till 2025 but was able to argue successfully before the Appeal Panel of the NADA that "contaminated supplements" were behind his flunked dope test.

The Appeal Panel, in January 2023, accepted his contention and reduced the ban period from four years to just one.

He returned to action in April 2023 and won a bronze at the National Inter-State Championships in Bhubaneswar in June that year. He also won gold in the 2023 National Games in Goa.