India began 22nd Asian Athletics Championships in Odisha on Thursday, July 7 on a high, winning seven medals on the opening day.
With Manpreet Kaur winning the Women's shotput event and G Lakshmanan racing to gold in the Men's 5000m to take India's tally to seven medals, India look set to overtake their 2015 meet record of 13 medals.
Amidst the gold rush, the Indian camp has been hit by doping scandal as country's leading decathlete Jagtar Singh tested positive for meldonium, the drug which had put tennis star Maria Sharapova in trouble last year.
Jagtar was to take the field along with compatriot Abhishek Shetty on Thursday as the decathlon event started on Thursday. However, only the latter participated in the event.
Notably, Jagtar has been provisionally suspended after his 'A' sample collected during Federation Cup 2017 in Patiala was tested positive by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA). The Rajasthan athlete, who won the decathlon event edging past Shetty at the last month's meet, faces the risk of a four-year ban if his 'B' sample also tests positive.
Jagtar did not even travel with the 95-member Indian contingent to Odisha as his 'A' sample test was passed on to the Athletics Federation of India well ahead of the biennial continental event.
"We knew about Jagtar's dope failure three-four days before this championships and we have left him out. He did not come along with the Indian team in Bhubaneswar, an AFI official said, as quoted by the Press Trust of India.
