Asian Games Gold Medallist Suspended After Testing Positive For Banned Substance

Seema Punia celebrates on the podium during the medal ceremony for the women’s discus throw final athletics event during the 2022 Asian Games (Picture credit: AFP)

Former Asian Games gold-medalist discus thrower Seema Punia has been given a 16-month suspension for failing a doping test.

The 42-year-old Punia’s ban began on November 10, the date of the Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel’s (ADDP) decision, according to the updated list of offenders by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA).

NADA didn’t disclose the substance she tested positive for.

This latest infraction adds to her problematic doping history, which includes two prior violations, one occurring at the junior level when she was just 17.

Her last competition was at the Hangzhou Asian Games in October 2023, where she secured a bronze medal. She is a four-time Commonwealth Games medalist, with three being silver medals.

Since the Hangzhou Asian Games, she has not competed. She had expressed a desire to retire after the 2024 Paris Olympics, for which she did not qualify. Punia participated in four Olympics (2004, 2012, 2016, and 2020) and five Commonwealth Games.

A contemporary of the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold-medalist, Krishna Poonia, her career spans over two decades. Her personal best is 64.84m, achieved in 2004.

She won a medal in each of the first four Commonwealth Games she participated in, but didn’t bag a podium finish at the 2022 Birmingham edition.

Her only Asian Games gold came in the 2014 Incheon edition. She also won a bronze at the 2018 Asian Games. At the junior level, she earned a bronze at the 2002 World Championships.

Earlier this year, she coached para javelin thrower Sandeep Chaudhary to a silver medal at the World Para Athletics Championships in New Delhi.

In addition to Punia, other athletes suspended for doping violations include distance runner Pooja Yadav (four years), shot putter Manjeet Kumar (six years), and middle-distance runner Nikesh Dhanraj Rathod (four years).

Marathon runner Kuldeep Singh and female steeplechaser Chhavi Yadav were also handed four-year suspensions for separate doping violations.

(With PTI Inputs)

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