India’s Gomathi Marimuthu will be stripped off her 2019 Asian Athletics Championships gold medal after she was handed a four-year ban by the Athletics Integrity Unit for testing positive for a banned substance, according to a report in Amar Ujala.
Gomathi had been provisionally suspended last May after testing positive for a banned substance.
The ‘A’ sample of the 30-year-old runner from Tamil Nadu, who clocked 2 minutes and 2.70 seconds to win the gold medal on April 22 last year, had returned positive for a steroid in the test conducted during the Asian Championships in Doha.
Now, Gomathi’s ‘B’ sample has also tested positive and she will need to serve out a ban till May 16, 2023. In addition, she will also need to pay a fine of Rs 1 lakh to the AIU.
All four of Gomathi’s samples were found positive for Steroid 19. It had been reported last year that she had tested positive for a banned substance in the sample the National Anti-Doping Agency collected in Patiala during the March 15-18 Federation Cup. But Nada had failed to file the report on time.