Hammer thrower Jitender Singh has been banned for life, having tested positive a second time in his career.
The ban was imposed recently by the National Anti-Doping Disciplinary panel headed by retired judge Dinesh Dayal.
Jitender who belongs to Uttar Pradesh, was undergoing a re-instatement testing process for an earlier offence when he was ‘caught' a second time last November. He tested positive for epimethandiole, a metabolite of steroid methandienone.
After several failures to serve notice to him, the authorities managed to get him before a hearing panel only last month.
Jitender claimed he had not taken any banned substance. He could not explain how the substance got into his body.
The athlete had tested positive at the South Asian championships in Kochi in 2008 and was suspended for two years by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI). The 2009 WADA rules provide the option of giving a suspension ranging from eight years to life for a second offence. “This panel is of the opinion that this is a fit case where a life ban should be imposed on the athlete as he has failed the reinstatement test,” wrote the panel in its decision given last month.
His ban started from November 4, 2010, the date on which he was provisionally suspended by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA).
