Two more Indian athletes caught in doping scandal

(Reuters)- A third member of India’s 2010 Commonwealth and Asian Games gold medal winning relay team has tested positive for banned anabolic steroids, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) said on Monday.

Ashwini Akkunji, part of the women’s 4x400m relay quartet which won India’s first Commonwealth Games track title since 1958, has been provisionally suspended, AFI director M L Dogra told reporters hours before she was to fly out for this week’s Asian Championships in Japan.

Another quarter-miler, Priyanka Panwar, has also been provisionally suspended after she also tested positive.

“It is sad that two more athletes -- Ashwini Akkunji and Priyanka Panwar -- tested positive for anabolic steroids,” Dogra said. “We have provisionally suspended them. They will now be called for ‘B’ sample tests and then the necessary procedure will be followed.”

Before Akkunji, her Commonwealth and Asian Games team mates Mandeep Kaur and Sini Jose were caught in a widening dope scandal involving five other lesser known athletes.

Dogra said the latest setback meant AFI could not name replacements for Akkunji and Panwar in the Japan event.

“We cannot send any replacements for the two athletes now but we will field a relay team in Japan.

“Two other athletes from the squad will run in the relay,” he said.

Jolted by the scandal, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) plans to increase the number of samples it collects and has threatened to raid athletes’ rooms to catch prospective drugs cheats.

The latest doping scandal follows the 122 positive cases reported in an 11-month period starting from May 2010.