NEW DELHI — Indian hammer thrower Manju Bala, who won a bronze medal at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, has been handed a five-year suspension by the Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (ADDP) of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) after testing positive for banned substances.
According to the panel’s ruling issued in October 2025, Bala tested positive for dehydrochloromethyl-testosterone, an anabolic steroid, and SARMS LGD-4033 (ligandrol), both prohibited under the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code. Her failed test was first revealed by NADA in September 2024.
The ban, which takes effect from July 10, 2024, will keep the 35-year-old athlete out of all national and international competitions until mid-2029. Once considered one of India’s leading hammer throwers, Bala had represented the country at multiple continental events over the past decade.
In its latest round of sanctions, the ADDP also announced disciplinary action against several other athletes. Mohan Saini was handed a four-year ban beginning October 14, 2025, for a separate doping violation.
Three bodybuilders — Gopala Krishnan, Amit Kumar, and Rajvardhan Sanjay Waskar — each received six-year suspensions, while Shubham Mahara was banned for four years. In boxing, Sumit was suspended for two years, while canoeist Nitin Verma and basketball player Shivendra Pandey were banned for four and six years, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Anti-Doping Appeal Panel (ADAP) upheld the four-year suspension imposed in 2024 on sprinter Himani Chandel, rejecting her appeal and finding no basis to overturn NADA’s decision.
The series of rulings underscores NADA’s continued effort to strengthen its anti-doping framework and enforce zero tolerance toward performance-enhancing drug use across all sporting disciplines in India. (Source: IANS)
