The National Anti-Doping Agency has suspended multiple Asian Games relay gold medallist M.R. Poovamma for failing a dope test in the Indian Grand Prix in Patiala in February 2021.
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Poovamma was a member of the gold-winning 4x400m women’s and mixed relay teams in the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games and also part of the squad that won the women’s relay gold at the 2014 Incheon Asiad where she also took the bronze in the individual 400m.
Three-month ban
The 32-year-old quartermiler, who tested positive for a stimulant methylhexaneamine at the Indian GP on February 18 last year, has been banned for three months.
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Adille Sumariwalla, the president of the Athletics Federation of India, said that the suspension order came about a week ago.
The first sign that Poovamma was in some sort of trouble came a few weeks before the Tokyo Olympics when she skipped the relay trials in Patiala and left the national camp suddenly in July last year.
She had clocked a season-best time of 52.44s in the Indian GP in Thiruvananthapuram in March this year and had also run in the Federation Cup in Malappuram in April.