Five athletes including former University champion Hemant Kirulkar were suspended for two years each on Wednesday for anti-doping rule violations.
Kirulkar, who won the 100m title in the all-India inter-University championships in Chennai in 2009 with a personal best 10.57s, came ‘positive' for steroid oxandrolone in an out-of-competition test conducted last April.
The Maharashtra-born Armyman, who will turn 23 on December 19, was suspended for two years from the date of his provisional suspension, May 23, 2011.
Kirulkar had come third (10.58s) in the National inter-State meet at Patiala and fourth in the National Open in Kochi in 2010. He was also a silver medallist in the 100m in the South Asian junior athletics championships in 2007.
The National Anti-Doping Disciplinary panel, headed by Sudhir Nandrajog, also suspended four other athletes, woman javelin thrower Megha Pardeshi of Maharashtra, hammer thrower Gaurav Bhardwaj of Uttar Pradesh, distance runner B. Madhusudhan of the CRPF and shot putter Budhisatva Banerjee of Madhya Pradesh for two years.
Pardeshi tested positive for steroid stanozolol in the second leg of the Indian Grand Prix at Patiala on May 7 this year. She finished second there with a throw of 44.43m. The javelin thrower, who has a personal best 51.70m, achieved in 2004, was third in the Kochi Open last year.
Eighteen-year-old Bhardwaj tested positive for steroid nandrolone and stimulant mephentermine in a test conducted at the National Youth championships in Ranchi last May. He had finished second there with a throw of 63.16m. He has a best of 65.70m (5kg hammer), also recorded this year.
Madhusudhan tested positive for steroid stanozolol and corticosteroid prednisolone at the all-India Police cross-country championships last May.
Banerjee returned ‘positive' tests for metabolites of hormone antagonist tamoxifen, and stimulant methylhexaneamine at the National inter-State meet in Bangalore last June. He had finished second (17.98m) there.
Banerjee did not report for the hearing despite being served a notice by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA). His suspension will run from the decision date, subject to the reduction of any provisional suspension period.
The other athletes have been suspended from their provisional suspension dates.
