Middle-distance runner Jhuma Khatun handed four-year ban for failing dope test

Middle-distance runner Jhuma Khatun has been banned for four years by the Athletics Integrity Unit for testing positive for a banned substance – steroid – in a saga that nearly lasted two years, and a case where the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) had failed to detect.

The 31-year-old dope sample collected during the National Inter-State Championships in June 2018 in Guwahati returned negative when it was tested by the NDTL in New Delhi. Khatun had won a bronze each in 1500m and 5000m in that Guwahati meet.

The World Anti-Doping Agency then decided to test the sample of Khatun at its Montreal Laboratory in Canada and it returned positive for dehydrochloromethyl testosterone. Khatun’s results from June 29, 2018 to November 21, 2018 will now be annulled.

It was not only Khatun’s sample but also of other four Indians, including 2017 Asian champion quartermiler Nirmala Sheoran, whose dope samples returned negative at NDTL but found positive when tested in Montreal.

WADA referred Khatun’s results management to the AIU which notified Khatun of the charges and provisionally suspended her in November 2018. Khatun waived her right for the confirmatory ‘B’ sample test and accepted the adverse analytical finding (AAF).

She, however, informed AIU that she was unsure how dehydrochloromethyl testosterone came to be present in her body. The AIU pressed Khatun for an explanation.

In January 2019, Khatun provided the AIU with her medical file, which, upon review, did not reveal the origin of the AAF. The AIU issued a notice of charge on Khatun early this month and she was offered an opportunity to admit to the Anti-Doping Rule Violations and accept a four year period ban or to request a hearing before the Disciplinary Tribunal by no later than April 13.

Khatun, who was also a part of the 2011 Asian Championships 4x400m relay race silver-winning quartet, then admitted the ADRV and accepted the four-year ban.