Indian wrestler Sumit Malik fails dope test, provisionally suspended

Yusup Batirmurzayev and Sumit Malik (right) during the Asian Wrestling Olympic Qualifier in Almaty, Kazakhstan last April. Pic/Getty Images

Olympic-bound Indian wrestler Sumit Malik has been provisionally suspended after failing a dope test during the recent Qualifiers in Bulgaria, a major embarrassment for the country with just weeks left for the Games in Tokyo. It marks the second consecutive instance of a wrestler being caught in dope net before the Olympics - the previous one being ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics when Narsingh Pancham Yadav had failed a dope test and was slapped a four-year ban.

Malik, the 2018 Commonwealth Games gold-medallist, 28, had qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in the 125kg category at the World Olympic Qualifier event in Sofia, Bulgaria which was the last chance for wrestlers to earn quotas. Malik's participation at the main event starting July 23 seems uncertain now.

"We got a mail from the UWW [United World Wrestling] on Thursday saying that Sumit has failed the dope test and he has been suspended provisionally. The substance found in his sample is said to be 5-methylhexan-2-amine [1,4-dimethylpentylamine]," Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) secretary Vinod Tomar told PTI.

"We are surprised by this. He must have taken it unknowingly, he has a clean track record. Let's wait for the result of his B sample," Tomar added. Non-specified substances are usually anabolic steroids and specified substances are stimulants.

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