Middle-distance runner Jhuma Khatun banned for four years by AIU after testing positive for banned substance

Middle distance runner Jhuma Khatun has been banned for four years by the Athletics Integrity Unit of the world governing body for testing positive for a banned substance in a nearly two-year-old doping case which the NDTL had failed to detect.

Representational image. AP Photo

The 31-year-old Khatun's dope sample collected during the National Inter-State Championships in June 2018 in Guwahati returned negative when it was tested by the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL). Khatun had won a bronze each in 1500m and 5000m in that Guwahati meet.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) then decided to test the sample of Khatun at its Montreal Laboratory in Canada and it returned positive for dehydrochloromethyl testosterone. Khatun results from 29 June, 2018 to 21 November, 2018 will now be annulled.

It was not only Khatun's sample but also of other four Indians, including 2017 Asian champion quarter-miler Nirmala Sheoran, whose dope samples returned negative at NDTL but found positive when tested in Montreal.

WADA referred Khatun's results management to the AIU which notified Khatun of the charges and provisionally suspended her in November 2018. Khatun waived her right for the confirmatory 'B' sample test and accepted the adverse analytical finding (AAF).

She, however, informed AIU that she was unsure how dehydrochloromethyl testosterone came to be present in her body. The AIU pressed Khatun to explain how the banned substance was present in her body.

In January 2019, Khatun provided the AIU with her medical file, which, upon review, did not reveal the origin of the AAF. The AIU issued a notice of charge on Khatun early this month and she was offered an opportunity to admit the Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRV) and accept a four year period ban, or to request a hearing before the Disciplinary Tribunal by no later than 13 April.

Khatun, who was also a part of the 2011 Asian Championships 4x400m relay race silver-winning quartet, then admitted the ADRV and accepted the four-year ban.