M.R. Poovamma, Indian ace sprinter who won the relay gold medal at the Asian Games, has been suspended for two years by the National Anti-Doping Appeal Panel.
Formerly reversing a panel’s decision to impose a three-month suspension.
The 32-year-old Karnataka 400m runner, who won numerous medals at the Asian Championships and Asian Games, would miss the World Championships and Asian Games the following year. On February 18, 2021, during the Indian Grand Prix-1 in Patiala.
She tested positive for methylhexaneamine, a stimulant that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prohibited in 2009 and is typically found in dietary supplements.
Poovamma had earlier denied using drugs, but after both of her “A” and “B” samples came back positive, she admitted to ingesting Bedtime Latte, an ayurvedic beverage.
She received a three-month suspension from the Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (ADDP) in June 2022, but the NADA challenged the decision.
The appeals panel believed that the ADDP had lowered her sentence without following any reasonable standard, law, or guideline and that the chemical found in her system was a regularly abused performance enhancer.
She began this year’s season at the Indian Grand Prix meet in Kerala, where she ran the 400 metres in under 53 seconds, but she withdrew due to the suspension from the National Inter-state Athletics Championships, which were held in Chennai from June 10 to 14.