India’s wrestler Narsingh Yadav’s Rio Olympics dreams were rocked after he was tested positive for methandienone – a banned anabolic steroid in a dope test conducted by NADA on 5 July.
But Narsingh has been adamant about not taking any banned substance on purpose and has claimed there was a conspiracy against him.
The only way the 26-year-old can make it to Rio is by producing a witness who will confess about spiking the wrestler’s food with methandienone at the NADA disciplinary panel hearing on Wednesday and by successfully clearing a dope test before heading to Rio.
According to WADA’s rule, if an athlete is able to prove he has been sabotaged, then his period of suspension will be waived.
Interestingly, the wrestler in his written complaint claimed that an unidentified person added a ‘powder’ in the dal prepared for the athletes in the Sports Authority of India Sonepat centre hostel’s kitchen.
Singh added that the cook, who wasn’t there when the unidentified person entered the kitchen, tried to catch him but he ran away.
Everything that was cooked that afternoon had to be thrown away because the cook wasn’t sure what was added to the meal while he was gone.Narsingh Yadav
Narsingh added that the incident was was kept under wraps by the SAI official in charge of the centre.
According to The Indian Express, a sting operation conducted by TV channels also allegedly showed the Sonepat centre’s kitchen staff talking about the incident involving the unidentified person.
The incident, according to the wrestler took place on 5 June, when the legal battle between Narsingh and Sushil was heading towards a close.