New Delhi: Olympic-bound Indian wrestler Sumit Malik has been provisionally suspended after failing a dope test during the recent Qualifiers in Bulgaria, a major embarrassment for the country with just weeks left for the Games in Tokyo.
It marks the second consecutive instance of a wrestler being caught in dope net before the Olympics — the previous being ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics when Narsingh Pancham Yadav had failed one and was slapped with a four-year ban.
Malik, the 2018 Commonwealth Games gold-medallist, had qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in the 125kg category at the Bulgaria event which was the last chance for wrestlers to earn quotas. The 28-year-old’s dream of competing at the event starting July 23 seems as good as over with this.
