India’s fastest junior quartermiler Sai Sangeetha provisionally suspended

Sai Sangeetha Dodla, the country’s fastest junior quartermiler this year, has been provisionally suspended for testing positive for a prohibited substance.

The Telangana athlete, who clocked a personal best of 55.13s while winning the under-20 Federation Cup in Lucknow in March, figures in the National Anti-Doping Agency’s list (dated May 31, 2024) of athletes who are now under a provisional suspension. The NADA list does not mention the date of the test but specifies that she tested positive for Stanozolol metabolites.

Sangeetha was part of the Indian team that won the 4x400m relay gold at the under-20 Asian Championships in Dubai in April, a gold that could be in danger now.

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She had also won the under-20 title in the 400m National Open in Thiruvananthapuram in March in 55.30s but surprisingly could not come anywhere close to that time at the under-20 Asians a month later, clocking 57.26s while finishing seventh in the individual quarter-mile.

The NADA’s new list of athletes under provisional suspension also includes Tamil Nadu’s Jeyavindhiya Jegadish, who finished sixth in the 400m hurdles at the under-20 Asians, and the substance involved is Drostanolone metabolite and Bihar’s Durga Singh, the girls 1500m champion at the Khelo India Youth Games in Chennai early this year.

Meanwhile, 20-year-old Kerala sprinter V. Neha, who figured under the NADA’s April 2024 list of athletes provisionally suspended, has now been banned for four years (starting from December 6, 2023) as per the list of sanctioned athletes by the Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (ADDP)/Anti-Doping Appeals Panel. The 20-year-old won silver in the 100 and 200m at the Junior Nationals in Coimbatore late last year.