Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Rio de Janeiro, August 19
Taking up cudgels on behalf of wrestler Narsingh Yadav after CAS overturned the clean chit given to him by the National Anti-Doping Agency, the Indian Olympic Association blamed unnamed compatriots for his ouster from the Olympics and the four-year ban slapped on him.
“It’s not just a loss for Narsingh at the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sports) but he was beaten by his compatriots who did not want to let him compete at the Olympics and not by his opponents,” IOA secretary general Rajeev Mehta told PTI after the verdict of the ad hoc division of the Court of Arbitration for Sports here.
Mehta was part of the four-hour-long hearing here and the verdict marked a painful end to the sordid controversy which began with the wrestler failing a June 25 test.
The 27-year-old’s name had appeared in the official Olympic schedule after he underwent the mandatory weigh-in. He was to take on France’s Zelimkhan Khadjiev in qualification round later today but the CAS verdict has dashed all his hopes.
The embattled 74kg category grappler has maintained all along that his scandalous dope test back home in the run-up to the Games was a result of conspiracy by rivals who spiked his food or drinks.
“To say I am devastated at the decision of CAS would be putting it mildly. I have gone through so much over the last two months off the mat but the thought of fighting for the glory of the nation at the Games had kept me going,” said the wrestler through a statement.
“My dream of competing and winning the country a medal at the Rio Olympics has been cruelly snatched away from me twelve hours before my first bout, but I will do everything it takes to prove my innocence. It is all I have left to fight for,” he added.
