Chaudhary banned for two years

Vinay Chaudhary, a 400m runner who has represented the country in the past, has been suspended for two years for an anti-doping rule violation.

A National Anti-Doping Disciplinary panel, headed by Dinesh Dayal, conveyed its verbal orders to the athlete on Friday and told him it would list its reasons for the suspension in a written order to be made available to him in due course.

Chaudhary tested positive for steroid stanozolol in an out-of-competition test done in Bangalore in August, 2010. He was initially part of the Indian 4x400m relay team for the Commonwealth Games here but his name was removed from the list following his adverse report.

In a long-winding hearing process Chaudhary first maintained that he had been given supplements by the “Russian doctor” in the National camp, then produced a package which he claimed might have caused the damage. The supplement given by the athlete was tested at the National Dope Testing Laboratory and found ‘positive' for stanozolol. Chaudhary was then asked to produce an unopened package of the same supplement, which, however, turned up ‘negative' when tested. Twenty-two-year-old Chaudhary, a UP and Police athlete, has a personal best of 47.18s for the 400 metres, the time he clocked while coming second at the inter-State meet at Patiala in August, 2010.

Meanwhile, a panel headed by Rajeev Kapoor handed out a two-year suspension to junior weightlifter Chandra Sekhar for a steroid violation in a hearing held on Thursday. Sekhar tested positive for steroids stanozolol and methandienone at last year's junior National championships.