NEW DELHI: India’s embarrassingly high ranking in the global doping violators’ list is expected to become more “respectable”, the National Anti-Doping Agency claimed on Monday, asserting that it has successfully tightened its monitoring system.

In a statement issued here, NADA said in the year gone by it conducted 151 tests.

“During the year 2016 NADA tightened the monitoring system on top level athletes and a total of 151 tests were conducted in the Registered Testing Pool (RTP), the global list of world level athletes maintained by WADA, which was more than the number of such tests carried out in earlier years (148 tests in RTP done during 2015),” the NADA stated. “During the domestic meets the National Anti-Doping Agency decided to conduct tests in all recognised national level events for seniors in disciplines where doping was prevalent. “However, the focus has been that of targeted testing of high performers rather than underachievers, and also to avoid repeated testing of individual athletes over short periods,” it added. NADA said it has asked national federations to provide their annual calendars well in advance. “Federations are expected to convey their calendar of activities (and subsequent changes if any) well in advance for effective dope control planning. Due to a large number of dope cheats, India stood at an embarrassing 3rd rank worldwide in 2014 with 95 anti-doping rule violations,” it said. “The incidence of doping further increased during 2015 to an even further embarrassing figure of 120 which is unfortunately close to a number two place worldwide. “Due to effective preventive strategies adopted by NADA during 2016, the incidence of doping in India has significantly decreased to a figure of 73 violations, which may bring India to a more respectable position close to fourth worldwide,” it added. Listing its programmes, NADA said it has been trying to reach out to as many athletes and coaches as possible to spread awareness. “In the year 2016, NADA in association with Sports Authority of India (SAI) &some National Sports Federations (NSFs) conducted as many as 52 anti-doping education and awareness programs in various part of India. These programs were targeted for sportspersons, young athletes, coaches and support staff,” it said. “There has been no roll back on dope tests except those considered superfluous or conducted on minors or non-entities. During 2016 as many as 3363 tests were conducted by NADA. Well planned mission orders have led to a significant increase in detection rate from 2.7 per cent to 3.5 per cent,” it added.—PTI