Rio de Janeiro: Narsingh Yadav’s fate continues to hang in the
balance with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) yet to announce its
verdict on the appeal by the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA)
against the clean chit to the star wrestler in a doping case.
“The meeting is now over. The decision has been kept pending and
no time has been given by the CAS,” Indian Chef de Mission Rakesh Gupta told
reporters after the CAS meeting here on Thursday.
Narsingh was cleared of doping charges by the National Anti Doping
Agency (NADA) ahead of the Olympics. But the
WADA decided to appeal to the CAS against the clean chit just two days
before Narsingh was scheduled to compete at the Games.
With the CAS delaying its decision, Narsingh’s campaign at the
ongoing Rio Olympics has now been thrown into uncertainty.
According to the official website of the Rio Games, the Mumbai
grappler was scheduled to start his Olympic campaign against Zelimkhan Khadjiev
of France in the qualification round of the men’s 74 kg Freestyle category on
Friday.
The 26-year-old grappler also underwent his weigh-in on Thursday.
The ongoing CAS episode is a continuation of a long ordeal for
Narsingh.
He was preferred over double Olympic
medallist Sushil Kumar to take part in the Olympics by the Wrestling
Federation of India (WFI) that led to a major legal battle between the two
wrestlers.
Narsingh, who bagged the quota with a bronze medal finish in last
year’s World Championships then ran into trouble over alleged doping offences.
He first returned positive for a banned steroid following a dope
test on June 25 by NADA, before being cleared on August 1.
The WFI also communicated to the world’s apex wrestling body, the
United World Wrestling (UWW) that NADA has cleared Narsingh of all the
doping-related charges and the 26-year-old would be re-included in the team for
the 74kg
competition.
The UWW gave the green light to Narsingh for participation on
August 3. However, Narsingh’s route had to clear the final WADA
hurdle to compete, which reviewed the NADA panel verdict and challenged it
at CAS for further deliberation.
Narsingh had claimed of a conspiracy to frame him and had filed a
police report in this regard, although he refrained from naming anyone.
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