An Indian track and field athlete has tested positive for the banned substance nandrolone, Commonwealth Games officials said on Wednesday, in a hugely embarrassing blow to the host nation.
It is the third anti-doping violation of the multi-sport event, which ends on Thursday.
The Indian was not immediately named as the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) has yet to receive confirmation that the competitor involved had been informed of the outcome of their test.
“As far as anti-doping is concerned, we have collected over 1,300 samples and I regret to inform you that we have another positive result,” CGF president Mike Fennell said.
“We can tell you that it is in the sport of athletics and the country is India.”
The athlete tested positive to the banned steroid nandrolone.
The two other positive tests here - Nigerian 110m hurdler Samuel Okon and Nigerian women’s 100m gold medallist Osayemi Oludamola - were for stimulants.
Oludamola was stripped of her gold medal late on Tuesday with Natasha Mayers of St Vincent and The Grenadines promoted to first with England’s Kathryn Endacott taking silver and Bertille Atangana of Cameroon awarded the bronze.
Organising committee secretary general Lalit Bhanot said it was unfortunate that an athlete from the host nation had cheated.
“It is unfortunate. We try our level best to obey the regulations,” he said.
“We and the government are very serious about this. We did a lot of out-of-competition tests and in-competition tests, but still someone tests positive and it is a difficult situation.
“Since we are the hosts we took precautions but unfortunately this thing has happened.”
Despite this, Fennell insisted that that three positive tests from more than 1,300 conducted so far was not bad.
“Everyone would concede that three out of 1,300 is not a bad record and of those two have been concluded successfully and they were considered by many not to be as serious as they were stimulants,” he said.
“It is better, of course, if there are no cases. All involved would prefer zero but we have to live with reality.”
The drugs violation Wednesday is nothing new for India, which has been afflicted by doping over the last decade, with weightlifters being the chief culprits.
The Indian weightlifting federation was fined $500,000 by the world governing body after six lifters failed dope tests last year.
The federation managed to pay only $125,000 and was forced to take an interest-free loan from Commonwealth Games organisers to pay the rest of the fine and ensure their participation in Delhi 2010.
In September, the country’s anti-doping agency lifted the provisional suspension of seven Indian athletes selected for the Games.
The suspension was lifted after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) re-classified methylhexaneamine, for which the athletes tested positive.
Four wrestlers, a shot-putter and two swimmers who were all part of India’s Games squad tested positive for methylhexaneamine, a stimulant used widely as a nasal decongestant.
These included two female swimmers, Richa Mishra and Jyotsna Pansare; three male wrestlers, Rajiv Tomar, Sumit Kumar and Mausam Khatri; female wrestler Gursharanpreet Kaur, and male shot-putter Saurav Vij.
Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.
