Narsingh Yadav, 26, is the latest to be embroiled in the doping scandals that have tarnished the Rio Olympics.
Back in July, Yadav was caught with methandienone in his system. However, the wrestler insisted he was the victim of sabotage and claimed rival wrestlers had put the steroid into his drink, and was then cleared. The national anti-doping agency’s director-general, Navin Agarwal, said “There is no fault or negligence on the athlete’s part and he is a victim of sabotage.”
The World Anti-doping Agency appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport who have now slapped Yadav with a four-year ban after finding him at fault for doping.
In a statemen, Cas said “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 athlete, who was all set to compete in today’s men’s freestyle -74kg, said:
“To say I am devastated at the decision of CAS would be putting it mildly. I have gone through so much over the last two months off the mat, but the thought of fighting for the glory of the nation at the Games had kept me going. My dream of competing and winning the country a medal at the Rio Olympics has been cruelly snatched away from me twelve hours before my first bout.”
