New Delhi: When Manish surprised a clutch of top-level sprinters while winning the men's 100m title in 10.60s at the Open National in Kolkata last month, there must have been hope that a new star was in the making.
However, just like a majority of those youngsters who take the National scene by storm, the 19-year-old Haryana sprinter has also turned out to be yet another athlete driven by drugs.
Manish happens to be one of the three athletes who turned in ‘positive' tests at the National. And he had a concoction of three drugs that turned up in his urine sample, all steroids — methandienone, methyltestosterone and stanozolol.
Among those beaten by Manish in Kolkata were Abdul Najeeb Qureshi (10.70s) who finished fifth and Shameer Mon (10.71s) who came sixth. Rahmatullah Molla (10.82s) was eighth and last.
Last year, they were the top three sprinters of the country. Vinita Sahani of the Railways (100m, 11.99s) and Alka Rani of Delhi (400m, 55.53s), both silver medal winners in Kolkata, were the other two athletes who tested positive.
Vinita had stanozolol, methyltestosterone and methylhexaneamine in her urine sample while Alka tested positive for stanozolol, mephentermine and clenbuterol. All three athletes have been provisionally suspended.
The Hindu