Asian champion shot-putter Manpreet Kaur fails dope test

New Delhi: Asian champion shot-putter Manpreet Kaur has been caught in the dope net after testing positive for a banned stimulant, a massive embarrassment for the country which might lose the gold medal clinched by her earlier this month.

Kaur, who won a gold medal in the recently-concluded Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar, tested positive for stimulant dimethylbutylamine.

The test was conducted by National Anti-Doping (NADA) officials during the Federation Cup National Championships held in Patiala from June 1-4.

She has not been put under provisional suspension as dimethylbutylamine is a specified substance under the WADA Code but India will lose the gold medal she won in Bhubaneswar if her confirmatory urine sample 'B' test also returns positive.

"Manpreet has tested positive in a test conducted during the Federation Cup in June. Her urine sample has been found to have stimulant dimethylbutylamine," an Athletics Federation of India (AFI) official told PTI.

"We have been notified by NADA about this last night," he said.

When contacted for a response, Manpreet's coach Karamjeet, who is also her husband, said, "We have not yet been told about anything."

NADA Director General Navin Agarwal said that this was the first time this banned stimulant dimethylbutylamine has been detected in the urine sample of a sportsperson in India.

"A woman shot putter has tested positive for a banned substance but she has not been put under suspension," Agarwal said.

"This is the first time, this substance was being detected from a sportsperson in India," he added.

Dimethylbutylamine is structurally related to methylhexanamine, a stimulant which was found to have been used by several sporstpersons just before the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.

Manpreet has already qualified for next month's World Championships to be held in London but the latest development may rule her out of the mega-event.

"We have not thought about it (about her World Championships participation). But we cannot lose our face on that big stage. We have to figure out about that," the AFI official added.

Manpreet had set a national record in the first leg of the Asian Grand Prix meet in Jinhua (China) in April with a throw of 18.86m, which fetched her a gold as well as a World Championships berth.

Later, she won a gold each in the Federation Cup (June 1 -4), Asian Championships (July 6-9) and the National Inter- State Championships which concluded at Guntur yesterday.

Early this month, decathlete Jagtar Singh tested positive for banned Meldonium and he was pulled out of the Indian team for the Asian Championships. Jagtar's test was also done on his urine sample collected during the Federation Cup in Patiala.

In May, top 400m hurdler Jithin Paul was told to leave the national camp at NIS Patiala after his bag was found to have the banned drug -- Meldonium -- in a search conducted by NADA officials.

He is put under provisional suspension and his hearing before the NADA Panel is going on.