India’s fastest woman Dutee Chand fails dope test

The 26-year-old Olympian could be banned for four years if her ‘B’ sample also returns positive

Dutee Chand, the country’s fastest woman ever, a World University Games 100m gold medallist and a double silver medallist at the last Asian Games in Jakarta in 2018, has failed an out-of-competition dope test and has now been provisionally suspended.

The 26-year-old’s ‘A’ sample (urine) in the test taken on December 5 showed traces of andarine, ostarine – which are among the most popular selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs) used as performance-enhancing drugs by athletes – and ligandrol.

They come under other anabolic agents in the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) list and are prohibited at all times. A US Anti-Doping Agency’s explainer on SARMs says that they could be very useful for stimulating tissue growth like muscles and bone.

Dutee’s positive test in the Asian Games year should be a big setback for Indian athletics which saw leading sprinters like S. Dhanalashmi and M.V. Jilna and youngster Taranjeet Kaur failing dope tests in the last one year.

Adille Sumariwalla, the Athletics Federation of India president, said that the federation would not make an official statement till the sprinter’s ‘B’ sample was tested. But he made it clear that Dutee was not in the national camp when the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) officials came to test her.

“She was not in the National Camp, nor was she training with the AFI National coach Ramesh in Hyderabad when the sample was taken. She was in at her domicile in Odisha,” Sumariwalla told The Hindu on Wednesday.

If Dutee, who ran in the last two Olympics and holds the national 100m record (11.17s, 2021), wants her ‘B’ sample to be tested and if it returns positive, she could face a four-year ban.