Athletics: Shot-putter Inderjeet’s 4-year ban upheld as CAS overturns Nada Appeals Panel’s decision

Former Asian Games shot put champion Inderjeet Singh was handed a four-year ban by Court of Arbitration for Sport on Wednesday.

The ban comes after CAS overturned India’s National Anti-Doping Association Appeal Panel’s decision to give a clean chit to the shotputter and World Anti-Doping Association’s appealed against Nada’s decision.

The ban comes into affect from September 26, 2019 but since Inderjeet has already served a ban from July 25, 2016 to December 14, 2018, those 29 months will be reduced from the new ban, Amar Ujala reported on Wednesday.

CAS also ordered that Nada and Inderjeet will have to pay 3000 Swiss Francs as compensation for the expenses incurred in the legal process.

Nada had imposed a four-year ban on Inderjeet but the shotputter appealed against the decision in the Appeal Panel which found flaws in Nada’s ruling. It acquitted Inderjeet of the the ban.

But earlier this year, Wada challenged Nada Appeal Panel’s decision to acquit Inderjeet in CAS, which accepted the arguments presented by Wada’s arbitrator.

Inderjeet’s lawyer was asked to prove that his client’s sample was tampered but the lawyer failed to do so. There was no clarity as to how the banned substance entered Inderjeet’s body.

The shotputter, who was banned before Rio Olympics, argued that the volume of his sample was too low when it reached the testing lab in New Delhi. But Wada said the amount was sufficient to be tested.