Triple-jumper Aishwarya Babu banned for four years; has 21 days to appeal

Karnataka’s Aishwarya Babu after she broke the triple jump national record last year. Pic/IANS

India's top triple-jumper Aishwarya Babu has been banned by the National Anti-Doping Agency's (NADA) disciplinary panel for four years for using a prohibited anabolic steroid.

The 25-year-old athlete was dropped from the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022, along with sprinter S Dhanalakshmi after testing positive for the steroid, which is on the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) prohibited list. Aishwarya has time till March 6 to file an appeal against the ban after receiving the ban notice from NADA's Appeal Panel on February 13.

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The athlete, who had tested positive for Ostarine - a drug that falls in the category of selective androgen receptor modulator (SRAM) - was tested during the National Inter-State Championships on June 13 and 14, last year in Chennai. Aishwarya had won the triple jump gold in the championships with a national record-breaking lunge of 14.14 metres. Having been provisionally suspended in July last year, Aishwarya has already served six months of her four-year ban. NADA said the substance Aishwarya used was an "anabolic steroid" listed under WADA's 2022 prohibited. It added that the athlete had not taken a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) for it. Aishwarya had said in her submission that she "did not take any prohibited substance in order to enhance" her performance.

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