NEW DELHI: In a sensational turnaround, Narsingh Yadav is exonerated of doping charges by the National Anti-doping Agency (NADA), which concluded that he was a victim of sabotage, paving the way for the wrestler’s participation in Rio Olympics.

After more than a week of drama which began with Narsingh testing positive for a banned anabolic steroid methandienone in tests conducted on June 25, NADA DG Naveen Agarwal put an end to the suspense on the wrestler’s fate by exonerating him.

“We kept in mind that in the past, till June 2, none of his samples were positive. It was inconceivable that one-time ingestion would be of benefit. Therefore the panel is of the view that the one-time ingestion was not intentional,” Agarwal said while reading out the verdict. “The panel concludes that the athlete deserves the benefit of article 10.4 of the NADA’s anti-doping code. Keeping in view that he was victim of a sabotage, the panel exonerates the athlete from charges of anti-doping rules of NADA. Agarwal said the sample collected on July 5 had substantially lower content of the banned substance than the one taken on June 25. “…the report about indicative estimated concentration of prohibited substance in the sample collected on June 25 has substantially reduced in the sample collected on July 5,” he added. “Important to note that report of the first sample was not known to the athlete till the collection of second sample on July 5. Had the athlete been regularly taking it, the report of July 5 would have been positive to the extent of having the main substance.” A relieved Narsingh said he is eager to go to the Olympics now and win a medal for the country. “I am very happy and I am hopeful of winning a medal at the Olympics. Truth has won. This will ensure that nothing like this happens with any other player. It is a huge win,” Narsingh said. “I knew I was on the right side and was confident of getting justice,” he added. The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said the process to get Narsingh back in the Olympic squad has been set in motion. Narsingh had been replaced by Parveen Rana when the scandal broke out to save India’s quota place in the 74kg category. –PTI

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