Neeraj, Sachin in AIU’s Registered Testing Pool for 1st quarter of 2026

Javelin throwers Neeraj Chopra and Sachin Yadav are the only Indian athletes to figure in the Registered Testing Pool (RTP) of World Athletics’ anti-doping watchdog Athletics Integrity Unit’s (AIU) for the first quarter of this year.

While two-time Olympic medal-winning Neeraj has been a regular on this list, Sachin is a new entrant after his fourth-place finish in the World Championships last year.

The Asian Championships silver medallist outperformed Neeraj at the world event, where the latter finished eighth due to nagging fitness issues.

Sachin covered a personal best of 86.27m, not just to end up higher than Neeraj, but also reigning Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan, who also endured a bad day ending 10th overall.

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The 26-year-old from Uttar Pradesh, who stands over six feet tall, is being widely regarded as the next big thing in the Indian javelin throw landscape, which has been dominated for over half a decade by Neeraj.

The RTP is the highest-tier pool of international or national-level athletes who undergo no-advance notice testing.

The athletes in this list have to provide details of their whereabouts, including home address, and also specify a 60-minute window each day during which they would be available for testing.

The new RTP list is dominated by athletes from Ethiopia, Kenya and the USA.

In the previous RTP, javelin thrower Kishore Jena, steeplechaser Avinash Sable, woman javelin thrower Annu Rani, and long jumpers Murali Sreeshankar and Jeswin Aldrin were among those listed. But none of them find a place in the first quarter list of the new year.

Published on Jan 02, 2026