At least five wrestlers were required to provide documentation after check-in, and when needles were discovered in their luggage at the airport, their names were announced.
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To combat doping, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) and the Sports Authority of India have advocated for a no-needle policy in national camps. The Athletics Federation of India had already enforced such a policy and dismissed athletes who were discovered in possession of syringes and needles. These rules are also in existence for other federations, including wrestling. However, a few men’s freestyle wrestlers at the recently finished Asian Championships were required to present receipts for needles they were carrying from Astana, Kazakhstan. The wrestlers were permitted to board their flight because it was unrelated to any substances that were restricted or banned.
National sports federations have been urged to adopt anti-doping measures, such as the no-needle rule, by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA). The rule forbids the use of needles for any reason other than medical treatment and demands that athletes reveal any medications they are taking. The goal of the policy is to encourage drug-free competition in sports and to curb the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs).
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At least five wrestlers were required to provide documentation after check-in, and when needles were discovered in their luggage at the airport, their names were announced. The squad had been chosen and approved for the competition by the sports ministry’s oversight committee, and NADA had not prohibited the food supplements and injections they were carrying. The names of the wrestlers concerned were called out since they had forgotten the syringe bills. When the wrestlers called their hotel to report the bills, they were given permission to leave after being shown images of them on their phones.
The event was confirmed by a source from the Sports Authority of India (SAI), who insisted that the wrestlers did not break the no-needle rule because the injections they were carrying had nothing to do with any prohibited substances. The prohibition against using needles was intended to encourage drug-free competition and discourage the use of illegal substances, the source added. It’s interesting to note that athletes have occasionally been kicked out of national training camps for having needles in their possession even when there were no prohibited substances present.
India finished seventh at the recently held Asian Wrestling Championships 2023, from April 9 to April 14, 2023. The nation won a total of 14 medals, including one gold, three silver, and ten bronze medals. The 19-year-old Aman Sehrawat was the lone gold medalist for the nation in the men’s 57kg division. Rupin Gahlawat, Nisha Dahiya, and Antim Panghal were India’s silver medalists.