Scourge of doping: India third in WADA's 2014 blacklist after Russia, Italy

New Delhi: India, still an unknown entity in Olympics sports, has emerged as the third highest Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) country in 2014.

According to a report released by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Wednesday, there were as many as 96 cases of doping by Indian sportspersons in the year.

The list was topped by Russia, accounting for 148 of the 1,693 doping violations recorded. Italy followed in second with 123 cases ahead of India.

Belgium (91), France (91), Turkey (73), Australia (49), China (49), Brazil (46) and South Korea (43) are the other countries in top 10.

India, whose medal count in the Olympics has been a mere 24 since 1920, has one of the highest number dope offenders in the last few years.

Out of the 96 ADRVs recorded by India, four are non analytical (2 each in athletics and wrestling) cases like failure to submit to appear for a test, possession, use or trafficking of a prohibited substance following an investigation.

Out of these 96 dope violations, 79 (56 men and 23 women) failed in-competition tests while 13 (9 men and 4 women) were caught out-of-competition.

Among the sports which contributed most dope cheats in the country, athletics continued to maintain the top spot with 29 cases, followed by powerlifitng (23) and weightlifting (22) as the trend of the last few years continued.

Other sports whose athletes were caught for dope violations were basketball (3), judo (3), taekwondo (3), wrestling (3), wushu (3), boxing (2), canoe/kayak (1), shooting (1) and soft-tennis (1).

There was a case of one dope violation each in para-athletics and para-judo as well.

ADRV is a doping case in which a decision is rendered against an athlete following a full disciplinary process. The sanction is either a reprimand or a period of ineligibility.