India has ‘extremely high’ doping risk: AIU; Athletics Federation downgraded to Category A
Highlighting that there is an “extremely high” risk of doping in India, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) Board has downgraded the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) from ‘Category B’ to ‘Category A’ under Rule 15 of the World Athletics’ Anti-Doping Rules. This comes in a year when India’s track and field athletes will be competing at Asian Games in Japan and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
This re-classification of the AFI means that India’s track and field athletes will now have to comply with more stringent anti-doping stipulations, including all national team athletes undergoing tests before major championships.
According to Rule 15 of the World Athletics’ Anti-Doping Rules, national federations are categorized as Category ‘A’, Category ‘B’ or Category ‘C’ member federations according to the relative doping risk they represent to the integrity of the sport of athletics at the international level. Rule 15 came into effect in 2019 and creates anti-doping obligations on national federations who can be held accountable for the anti-doping programmes operated in their country.
“The doping situation in India has been high-risk for a long time and, unfortunately, the quality of the domestic anti-doping programme is simply not proportionate to the doping risk. While the AFI has advocated for anti-doping reforms within India, not enough has changed. The AIU will now work with the AFI to achieve reforms to safeguard the integrity of the sport of athletics, as we have done with other ‘Category A’ Member Federations,” AIU Chair David Howman said in a statement.
“This is a good step. There will be more scrutiny. All in all, it will clean up the system. More has to be done in gathering intelligence, out-of-competition testing and testing at state and district level,” World Athletics vice president and AFI spokesperson Adille Sumariwalla told The Indian Express on Monday.
He also added that criminalisation of doping will be a deterrent.
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“The government is also moving towards criminalising doping, which I have been asking for years. Suspension and arrests of coaches, supplies and distributors should be done. There has to be a strong deterrent. A case in point being of an Indian athlete serving three years in a jail in Kenya for distributing forbidden substances. Education has been done, now it is time for regulation. We have to accept that there is an issue. The AFI, National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) and the government have to work together to resolve it,” the World Athletics vice president said.
The National Anti-Doping Agency director general Anant Kumar did not respond when contacted for a comment. The sports ministry also chose not to comment.
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What does ‘Category A’ mean for Indian athletes
– According to Rule 15 of the World Athletics’ Anti-Doping Rules, athletes of ‘Category A’ federations in the National Team for any World Athletics Series Event, Olympic Games or World Athletics Ultimate Championship, and who are not already on the International Registered Testing Pool, have to be adequately tested.
– The testing program must also include in-competition testing, no notice out-of-competition testing and pre-competition blood testing for screening purposes and analyses as prescribed under WADA’s Technical Document on Sport-Specific Analyses (TDSSA).
– If athletes do not reside or train from time to time in the country of the federation, it remains the responsibility of Category ‘A’ federation (or the relevant anti-doping organisation) to ensure that the athletes are subject to testing abroad.
– All test samples of athletes will have to be provided to be analysed by WADA-accredited laboratories for full menu analysis.
Why was AFI downgraded?
India ranked in the top two for the most Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) in athletics between 2022 and 2025, as per data presented in the AIU statement.
In 2022, India recorded 48 Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ranked 2nd) while in 2023, the number grew to 63 (ranked 2nd); and then rose even further to 71 in 2024 (ranked 1st). For 2025, India has recorded 30 ADRVs so far, which puts it at rank 1st, but with a caveat that there is a substantial time lag in reporting the final ADRV numbers, the AIU statement said.
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India has the dubious distinction of having the highest number of dopes cheats in the world across sports, as per data in the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) annual report for 2024, published in December last year. According to the data, 260 Indian athletes tested positive for prohibited performance-enhancing drugs last year. No other country in the world had dope cheats in triple digits.
Also at 3.6 per cent, India’s positivity ratio was among the highest in the world. The National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) collected 7,113 urine and blood samples of which 260 returned positive. China, in contrast, conducted 24,214 tests and had 43 positive cases. In fact, five countries – apart from China – tested their athletes more rigorously than India. They were Germany (15,081 tests; 54 positives), France (11,744 tests; 91 positives), Russia (10,514 tests; 76 positives), Italy (9,304 tests; 85 positives) and the UK (8,273 tests; 30 positives).
