By the time Lalit Kumar crouched at the starting blocks for the men’s 100m final at the Delhi state athletics meet on Tuesday, the 20-year-old was only ever going to finish first.
All seven of Kumar’s opponents withdrew from the race at the capital’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium citing cramp or muscle strains.
Organizers said they suspect the athletes, along with numerous other competitors on the third and final day of the competition, pulled out after getting wind of the imminent arrival of officials from the Indian National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA).
Photo: AFP
The visit came a day after a video shared on social media appeared to show a restroom in the stadium littered with syringes and packets of the performance-enhancing drug erythropoietin.
“An odd withdrawal is understandable, but when seven runners withdraw, you know something is fishy,” Delhi Athletics Association secretary Sandeep Mehta said yesterday.
“There are some throwers as well who disappeared before competition and all of them should be tested by NADA. We are sharing with them details of the athletes who fled,” Mehta said. “If any of them return adverse results, we will ban them in Delhi and will recommend the Athletics Federation of India does the same.”
Mehta also said that some athletes from the meet did not turn up to collect their medals, raising more doping suspicions.
India ranked second behind Russia in anti-doping rule contraventions in a World Anti-Doping Agency report published in May.
Kumar, who was hailed on social media for being an “honest athlete in a dirty sport,” was dismayed at how the competition panned out.
“I was really looking forward to running against the best athletes, but nobody turned up,” he told the Indian Express newspaper. “Everyone was scared of getting tested. As an athlete, I feel very hurt and let down.”
The Delhi Athletics Association said it would award Kumar a medal and certificate even though he was the lone runner in the final.
“He did compete with others in the heats, and it’s not his fault that opponents disappeared before the final,” Mehta said. “We believe it would be wrong to deny him his medal and the certificate, and he will have them soon.”
In the junior steeplechase event, a girl continued to run even after crossing the finish line and a doping control officer had to chase her to get her sample.
The under-16 boys hammer throw also had only one participant.
Additional reporting by AFP
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