Wrestler Bajrang Punia, the Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist, has said he never refused to give his sample and will contest on Tuesday his provisional suspension by the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) for not providing his urine sample following the selection trials in Sonepat on March 10.
NADA served a notice to the wrestler on April 23 and gave Punia until May 7 to give his reply. Punia lost in the trials to select the Indian squad for the Asian Olympic Qualifiers in Sonepat and left the venue without giving his sample and didn’t return for the third-fourth place playoff.
The 30-year-old had put out a video some time ago alleging that NADA had come to collect his sample last December using a collection kit that was past its expiry date. On Sunday, after his provisional suspension was reported in the media, he contended on social media that he had not refused to give his sample in March but only wanted the NADA officials to first explain why they used a collection kit that was past its expiry date.
“I want to clarify about a report regarding my dope test. I never refused to give my sample, I requested them to get a reply about the expiry kit which I had raised with them. I wanted to know what action was taken? I told them please give me a reply and take my sample. My lawyer Vidhusphat Singhania will reply to this notice soon,” Punia wrote on X.
“We are studying the matter and we will reply before the May 7 deadline,” Singhania said on Sunday. “The first step will be to contest the suspension, which we will do before the appeals panel. We will make it clear that Bajrang has never opposed to comply with anti-doping rules. His only contention was that he wanted a response on the video he had shared on expired kits. We will appeal against this suspension and if we’re not satisfied, we may look to move court later.”
A senior Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) official said that NADA’s letter was not addressed to the national body and instead went to the now defunct ad hoc committee that was in charge of the selection trials in March.
“It was a strange decision to send the letter to ad-hoc body which is no longer in control of wrestling. It’s a clear way to bypass us despite UWW (wrestling’s world body) repeatedly establishing WFI as the only body in charge of wrestling. We were not even given a copy of the letter,” the WFI official said.
In the NADA site, 11 anti-doping rule violations are listed. One of them says “Evading, Refusing or Failing to submit to sample collection by an athlete” constitutes a violation.
At the Sonepat trials, both Tokyo Games medallists Ravi Dahiya (57kg) and Punia (65kg) crashed out and the two giants of Indian wrestling left the Sports Authority of India centre in a huff, unable to hide their disappointment. Punia lost to Rohit 9-1 in the semi-finals and did not stay back to compete in the third-fourth place playoff.
Sujeet Kalkal won the 65kg trials in Sonepat. He will compete in that category at the World Olympic Qualifiers in Istanbul scheduled on May 9, the final competition for Indian men – none has qualified till now — to earn Olympic quota spots. So far, only four women have qualified.
Punia’s suspension is a fresh blow to Indian wrestling that has been grappling with off-mat issues for over a year. Punia, along with Vinesh Phogat – she has qualified for Paris in 50kg —
and the now retired Rio Games bronze medallist Sakshi Malik were the face of the protests that led to sexual harassment charges being framed against the then WFI president, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. A Delhi court verdict on the case is awaited.
Besides Kalkal, Aman Sehrawat (57kg) and Deepak Punia (86kg) too will bid to qualify from the Istanbul meet. The winners in Turkey are expected to go through final domestic trials this month before the Paris-bound squad is finalised.
Unless he is successful in getting the NADA suspension overturned – it is likely to go before a disciplinary panel after the May 7 submissions — Punia’s wrestling career would face uncertainty.