5 months ago
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Former Asian Games gold-winning discus thrower Seema Punia has been handed a 16-month prohibition for failing a dope test.
The 42-year-old Punia's suspension came into unit connected November 10 — the day of the determination by the Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (ADDP) — arsenic per the updated database of dope offenders by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA).
NADA, however, did not specify the substance for which she has tested positive.
The latest offence adds to her checkered doping record, which includes 2 erstwhile violations, 1 of them astatine the inferior level erstwhile she was simply 17.
Her past contention was the Hangzhou Asian Games successful October 2023 wherever she won a bronze medal. She is besides a four-time Commonwealth Games-medallist, 3 of them being metallic medals.
She has not competed since the Hangzhou Asian Games. She did explicit a tendency to discontinue aft the 2024 Paris Olympics for which she could not qualify. Punia had competed successful 4 Olympics (2004, 2012, 2016 and 2020) and 5 Commonwealth Games.
A modern of 2010 Commonwealth Games golden medallist Krishna Poonia, her vocation has spanned for much than 2 decades. He idiosyncratic champion is 64.84m, which she came up mode backmost successful 2004.
She won a medal successful each of the archetypal 4 CWGs but failed to basal connected the podium successful the 2022 Birmingham edition.
Her archetypal and lone Asian Games golden came successful 2014, Incheon edition. She besides won a bronze successful the 2018 Asian Games. At the inferior level, she won a bronze successful the satellite championships successful 2002.
She worked arsenic manager of para javelin thrower Sandeep Chaudhary erstwhile helium won a metallic successful the World Para Athletics Championships successful New Delhi earlier this year.
Apart from Punia, region runner Pooja Yadav (four years), changeable putter Manjeet Kumar (six years) and middle-distance runner Nikesh Dhanraj Rathod (four years) were besides suspended for failing dope tests.
Also suspended for 4 years were marathon runner Kuldeep Singh and pistillate steeplechaser Chhavi Yadav for abstracted doping violations.
