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In an unfortunate turn of events, Indian discus thrower Navjeet Dhillon has been handed a three-year ban by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for doping. This also comes after another leading discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur tested positive for stanozolol, a banned anabolic steroid in March 2022.
Dhillion, the 2018 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist failed a dope test conducted by AIU in Almaty, Kazakhstan on June 24 this year. According to the report on Reuter, the 27-year-old was found positive for a metabolite of dehydrochloromethyltestosterone (DHMCT), which is an anabolic steroid under the ban list by the authority. It is being said that Dhillon has been maintaining a stance of her consuming the banned substance, unknowingly.
Although the original ban sentence was four years, the final judgement saw squashed by a year due to Dhillon accepting the doping violation and also accepting the sanction. Following this decision, all results of Dhillon from June 24, 2022, will be disqualified, including all titles, medals and appearances as well.
On August 11, Dhillon was intimated of the suspension by the apex authority due to her positive results. Then, AIU gave a deadline of August 18 for the athlete to accept the doping violation and reduce her sentence. However, after not hearing from her until the said date, AIU extended the date to August 24.
It was on August 23, that Dhillon wrote to the authority about her consuming the prohibited substance, without her knowledge and ultimately accepted anti-doping violations.
Dhillon rose to fame after winning a bronze medal in the women's discus throw event of the 2014 Junior World Athletics Championships in the USA. The talented athlete had secured victories in all three meets this year, which comprised Inter-State Nationals in Chennai in June. A day after she was tested, Dhillon won a title in the Qosanov memorial meeting in Almaty. Further, she was ranked eighth in the CWG 2022, with her personal best of 53.51 m.
