India moved to highest-risk anti-doping category by World Athletics

MONACO: Indian athletes will now be subject to tougher anti-doping requirements after the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) was shifted into World Athletics’ highest-risk category, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said on Monday.

The AIU said India was among the top two countries in athletics for anti-doping rule violations between 2022 and 2025. In light of that record, the AIU board moved the AFI from Category B to Category A.

Under the AIU framework, Category A federations are considered the highest risk and are required to meet stricter obligations. These include minimum testing thresholds for national-team athletes, according to the AIU.

AIU Chairman David Howman said in a statement that India had faced a high-risk doping situation for a long period and that the domestic anti-doping system had not matched the scale of that risk.

The doping situation in India has been high-risk for a long time and, unfortunately, the quality of the domestic anti-doping programme is simply not proportionate to the doping risk.

The statement said the AFI had pushed for anti-doping reforms within India, but the changes made were insufficient. The AIU would work with the Indian federation to pursue reforms aimed at protecting the integrity of athletics, as it has done with other member federations in Category A.

The development comes as India prepares to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games and continues its bid for the 2036 Olympics. The country has also topped the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) list of doping offenders for three consecutive years.

WADA president Witold Banka, who visited India last week, described the easy availability of performance-enhancing drugs in the country as a serious concern. During the visit, he met senior officials from India’s federal police and sought support to disrupt supply chains for such substances.

AFI spokesperson Adille Sumariwalla said the federation was coordinating with the AIU, India’s sports ministry and the National Anti-Doping Agency to tackle the problem.

AFI has got a strong plan and we are all for criminalising doping in this country.

Sumariwalla, who is also a World Athletics vice president, told Reuters by telephone that increased scrutiny was not a problem for the federation.

There’s nothing wrong in more scrutiny. More athletes are getting caught in India because more tests are being conducted.

We are fighting it tooth and nail. The crooks and criminals doing it should be stopped by police. We are not police, our job is to create a policy and the government is helping.

When an Indian delegation visited the International Olympic Committee headquarters in Lausanne last year, it was told that curbing doping would strengthen the country’s Olympic bid.