NADA using expired kits: Bajrang Punia

NEW DELHI: On Friday, professional wrestler Bajrang Punia restated that he had not "refused" to give the National Anti-Doping Agency a sample of his urine for a doping test.

On April 23, NADA temporarily suspended Punia for reportedly refusing to give a sample of his urine when a dope-control inspector from NADA approached him following his fight on March 10 at the Sonepat selection trials for the Paris Olympics qualification competition.

Subsequently, the United World Wrestling (UWW) announced on Thursday that the bronze medallist from the Tokyo Olympics has been placed under a provisional ban that would last until the end of December of this year.

The UWW stated on Bajrang's profile on its website: "Suspended for the following reason until Dec 31, 2024. Provisionally suspended by NADO IND for alleged ADRV (Anti-Doping Rule Violation)."

The decision has jeopardised Punia's bid to feature in the Paris Olympics this July.

Following the NADA suspension, Punia last Sunday tweeted that he had "never refused" to give his sample to NADA officials. Today again, the wrestler took to social media platform X to give a detailed explanation of the events that unfolded.

"This is to clarify that, I have at no stage refused to give my sample for doping control. On 10 March 2024, when I was approached by alleged doping control officials, I merely reminded them that the last two times they came to collect my sample, they had gotten expired kits once and on the other instance, they had approached me with a single testing kit as opposed to the three testing kits," Punia wrote on X.



(With ANI inputs)