Indian athletes banned from competing at the Meeting de Limoges citing high doping numbers
The Meeting de Limoges, a challenger-level athletics meet, canceled three Indian athletes’ entries after initially accepting them in March 2024 citing controversies related to doping and athletics in India.
The three athletes namely Eldhose Paul, the CWG gold medallist in the triple jump, Selva Prabhu, junior world silver medallist in the triple jump, and Jess Sandesh, high jumper were expected to be a part of the meet in France in June 2024.
Notably, the organizers of the Meeting de Limoges took this decision following the release of the 2022 Testing Figures report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). According to the report, India recorded the highest percentage of failed doping tests among nations that tested more than 2000 samples.
The report indicated that India conducted 3865 samples during the period under review, of which 125 returned adverse analytics findings, which resulted in 3.2 percent of the samples, WADA stated in its report.
“The organization does not want to take even the slightest risk” - Meeting de Limoges’ organizers
Interestingly, despite none of the Indians having previously violated doping control regulations, the competition organizers stated that they did not want to take ‘the slightest risk on this topic’.
“The organization took this decision in view of the various controversies related to doping and athletics in India. The organization does not want to take even the slightest risk on this topic in the framework of the meeting, and since there is no possibility of proving that your athletes are not part of doping, the organization prefers to remain cautious,” the organizers stated as quoted by Sportstar.
One of the affected Indian athletes emphasized that the organizers' decision was ‘unfair’, especially during the Olympic year.
“While I understand where they are coming from, it feels unfair that all the Indian athletes are affected, especially in the Olympic year. Decisions like this make years of hard work feel as if it’s wasted. It’s not right that we are being punished for someone else’s wrong actions,” One of the affected Indian athletes stated.
When asked about his comment on the Meeting de Limoges incident, Indian Athletics Association president Adille Sumariwalla conveyed that he was not aware of the situation.