Red-faced India promises to clean the system of doping abuse in athletics

The athletics community of India has been left redfaced with the classification by anti-doping watchdog of World Athletics' as India being an ‘extremely high risk’ category for substance abuse. The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has changed the grading of Athletics Federation of India from ‘B’ to ‘A’— raising a chatter whether it will interfere with the country’s Olympics 2036 ambitions.

‘’The AIU move has nothing to do with India’s bid for Olympics or hosting of Commonwealth Games,’’ claimed Adille Sumariwala, a former long serving AFI president and one of the vice presidents of World Athletics. Speaking to National Herald, the Olympian and former sprint ace said they would not be in denial about the global body’s action and felt it gives them an opportunity to "clean up the system".

 The AIU statement says: “This decision, recently taken by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) Board, relates to the consistently extremely high risk of doping in India which has ranked in the top two for the most Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) in athletics between 2022 and 2025. In 2022, India recorded 48 ADRVs (ranked 2nd); in 2023, 63 (ranked 2nd); in 2024, 71 (ranked 1st) and for 2025, India has recorded 30 ADRVs so far (ranked 1st) (note: there will be a substantial time lag in reporting the final ADRV numbers).”

AIU chairperson David Howman made a damning indictment about the health of doping control in Indian athletics: “The doping situation in India has been high-risk for a long time and, unfortunately, the quality of the domestic anti-doping programme is simply not proportionate to the doping risk. The AIU will now work with the AFI to achieve reforms to safeguard the integrity of the sport of athletics, as we have done with other Category A Member Federations.”

Making a case for India, Sumariwala said: ‘’If you scan the cases of violations in India, one will see the number of elite athletes is very negligible—they are mostly young athletes in minor events who have often got swayed by their coaches. We have said before that the rise in number of positive cases in recent times is because of the rise in number of tests and there again, the numbers have come down after 2025.’’

However, recent examples have thrown up some prominent names like discus thrower Seema Punia, a former Asian Games gold medallist, who has been handed a 16-month ban and will miss the Asiad later this year. Dhanalakshmi Sekar, a prominent 27-year-old sprinter from Tamil Nadu, has been handed a eight-year ban by the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) on 30 December last year for a second doping offence—raising concerns that the AFI is up against a tough challenge.

A Wada (World Anti Doping Agency) report last year branded India as the world’s worst doping offender for a third consecutive time with a record 260 cases of drug abuse by athletes in 2024. The figure was the highest among all countries that conducted 5,000 or more tests—reflecting a positivity rate of 3.6 per cent.

 A AFI press release said on Tuesday: ‘’AFI has also strongly advocated for the criminalisation of those responsible for doping—particularly at the grassroots—to deter coaches and parents from exploiting young athletes.

 ‘’With continued collaboration between the AIU, NADA, and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, AFI is confident that India will overcome this challenge and soon be removed from Category A,’’ the statement added.