Dhanalakshmi Sekar, rising Indian sprinter, banned for three years for doping
Dhanalakshmi’s ban was reduced by one year, from the prescribed four, after she admitted taking a performance-enhancing drug.
Indian sprinter Dhanalakshmi Sekar has been banned for three years for failing a dope test in May, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced.
Dhanalakshmi Sekar, who burst onto the Indian athletics scene last year after beating top Indian sprinters Hima Das and Dutee Chand in 100m and 200m races, had failed an out-of-competition dope test in May. Her sample was taken in Antalya, Turkey, where she was training with other Indian athletes for the world championships in the US.
Dhanalakshmi, who had qualified for the Tokyo Olympics last year, made the cut for the world athletics championships in Oregon last month and the ongoing Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham. The doping offence gutted the prodigious sprinter.
Her sample collected contained metandienone, a performance-enhancing steroid which falls under prohibited substances, as per the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Dhanalakshmi admitted to the offence and thus her ban was reduced by one year, as provisioned by the AIU, from the mandated four.
The 24-year-old Dhanalakshmi’s ban will be effective from July 11, when she was provisionally suspended. All her results from May 1 will now stand null and void.
Dhanalakshmi competed in four meets since then, all in June. She beat Hima Das in a 100m race in Turkey with a personal best time and made the cut for the CWG. She also upstaged Hima in the 200m.
In another meet in Turkey, Dhanalakshmi was a part of the gold-medal-winning women’s 4x100m team. Later at the National Inter-State Athletics Championships in Chennai, she beat Hima Das again by clocking 23.27s.
Towards the end of June, Dhanalakshmi Sekar timed a personal best of 22.89s in the 200m to win the gold medal at the Qosanov meet in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The effort earned her a spot in the world championships.