BENGALURU: The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) and National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) India got into global focus for the wrong reasons on Monday with the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), an independent body created by World Athletics to manage all integrity issues, cracking the whip on AFI for the rising number of doping cases. The latest AIU ruling could spell further trouble for Indian athletes as they will be viewed with distrust across the world.“The doping situation in India has been high-risk for a long time and, unfortunately, the quality of the domestic anti-doping program is simply not proportionate to the doping risk,” AIU Chair David Howman said in an AIU press release. “While the AFI has advocated for anti-doping reforms within India, not enough has changed. The AIU will now work with the AFI to achieve reforms to safeguard the integrity of the sport of athletics, as we have done with other ‘Category A’ Member Federations,” he added.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Under the World Athletics AntiDoping Rules, the AIU Board categorises all Member Federations according to their doping risk to the sport. ‘Cat A’ Member Federations, representing the highest risk, are subject to more stringent requirements under the Rules, including minimum testing requirements for their national team athletes.According to the AIU release, Indian athletes must now comply with more stringent anti-doping stipulations following AFI’s recategorization from ‘Cat B’ to ‘Cat A’, under Rule 15 of the World Athletics’ Anti-Doping Rules.In 2024, there were reports that three of the top athletes were denied entry at a competition in France citing the WADA stats on the high number of doping cases in India. This decision by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) Board, relates to the consistently “extremely high” risk of doping in India which has ranked in the top two for the most Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) in athletics between 2022 and 2025. In 2022, India recorded 48 ADRVs (ranked 2nd); in 2023, 63 (ranked 2nd); in 2024, 71 (ranked 1st); and for 2025, India has recorded 30 ADRVs so far (ranked 1st), the release said which also informed that Bahrain Athletics Association (BAA) will move up from Cat A to B. The news has shaken the AFI brass, which had discussed the issue again at their recent AGM in Kohima. “It’s a big concern and that’s the reason why we made it mandatory for top athletes to compete in more meets. This was aimed at preventing athletes taking banned drugs during extended training periods and then producing stunning results in one meet,” an AFI official told TOI.“The high number of doping cases are also a result of a lot of junior athletes getting caught for using banned drugs. Though they are under AFI, they are not strictly under our watch,” he said.
‘NADA India ‘needs overhaul’With the AIU pointing to the creation of an independent Bahrain NADO doing a fine job to curb the menace, the focus also came on the work of India’s NADA India with experts calling for a total overhaul.“NADA has certain legacy issues. Right now, NADA is putting quantity over quality. The NADA needs a total overhaul with the new persons in the key posts. There are quite a few officers in NADA who are in the same post for more than 10 years,” informed sources told TOI.“The first thing that NADA needs to do is ensure quality manpower. Also, there is no proper testing plan. Some of the testing numbers which they provide could be incorrect. They need to examine the high attrition rate of contractual staff.”
