Seasoned woman 400m runner MR Poovamma will have to serve a two-year ban for doping violation.
The multiple Asian Games medallist, who tested positive for banned stimulant Methylhexaneamine at the Indian Grand Prix meet on February 18 last year, was originally suspended for three months by the National Anti-Doping Agency’s (NADA) disciplinary panel in June.
The NADA Anti-Doping Appeal Panel (ADAP) has now overturned the decision, handing her a two-year ban. The earlier decision by the disciplinary panel was based on the athlete’s plea of ‘unintentional ingestion’ after testing of the food supplement as sought by Poovamma.
Upholding NADA’s appeal, the ADAP said the “athlete initially did not raise any such plea regarding testing of supplements at an early stage since it requires deposition of supplements and collection of evidence.”
“It cannot be said that the Appellant exercised utmost caution before consuming the said products. The plea of unintentional ingestion taken by the Appellant is hereby rejected,” according to the ADAP judgement of September 17.
“We set aside the impugned order dated l6.O6.2022 as passed by Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel and allow the appeal of NADA and consequently impose a sanction of 2 years under Article l0.2.2 ineligibility upon the Athlete,” noted the panel headed by Abhinav Mukerji.
The decision comes just as Poovamma’s three-month suspension was coming to an end. She was part of the 2014 and 2018 gold-winning relay teams at the Asian Games. She was looking to make a comeback with an eye on the Asian Games next year.