It’s been a week full of turns and twists for Narsingh Yadav. On Monday, he breath a sigh of relief after being given a clean chit by National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA).
NADA DG Naveen Agarwal opined that Narsingh was a victim of conspiracy. He said, “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.”
He further said, “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.”
Narsingh had been replaced by Praveen Singh but after the decision went in his favour, the Wrestling Federation of India said that it will be Narsingh who would head for Rio.
The hearing went on for three consecutive days and the speculations were that Narsingh would not be able to compete in this year’s Olympics. Earlier, the Mumbai wrestler had filed a police complaint and named two fellow wrestlers in the complaint.
Narsingh Yadav would be happy that he is finally going to Rio but the recent controversies have only added pressure on the wrestler. First, it was hoopla over who said go to Rio between him and Sushil Kumar and then the dope controversy. If Narsingh is able to win a medal in Rio, his would be certainly a story to be remembered.
