Youth national lifting champion Parithosh Upadhaya is out of the national weightlifting camp in progress at Pune. Reason: He tested positive for a banned substance in the random dope tests conducted by the SAI lab recently.

Incidentally, Upadhaya tested for the same substance Methendiond (anabolic steroid) for which senior lifter Kavita Devi had tested positive during the WADA out-of-competition test.

Upadhaya’s case should be quite alarming. He was considered a medal prospect for the Pune Commonwealth Youth Games to be held in October and was at the national camp in Patiala, but now faces the exit door.

During the Patiala camp, Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) had combined training for both youth and senior lifters.

Senior lifters had recently represented the country at the continental Olympics qualifier in Japan. But the youth team is yet to participate in any international meet. In the Imphal national championships, Upadhaya represented Karnataka and was the winner of the title in the 77-plus kg group.

Not selected for camp

On Monday, the IWF confirmed that Upadhaya is not among the 28 probables selected for the youth national camp in Pune. “He (Upadhaya) is out of the camp, and is suspended for a period of two years,” BR Gulati, newly nominated secretary general of the IWF told The Indian Express from Pune.

Although expressing his concern over the two doping violations, Gulati ruled out any possibility of getting the urine samples of the lifters training at the camp tested at the WADA-accredited lab in the future, adding that the federation is taking stern measures to check the menace.

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