India, third in dope violators list for 2019

New Delhi

An uptick in the number of offenders has taken India into the top-three of the world’s largest doping violators in a WADA report that detailed the transgressions for the year 2019. Bodybuilding, weightlifting and athletics contributed majorly to the country’s embarrassing record. In the latest report published by the World Anti-Doping Agency, a tally of 152 (17 per cent of the world total) Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) was from India in 2019, leaving it third in the list, as the maximum dope offenders came from bodybuilding (57). Among Olympic sports, weightlifting leads the way with 25 ADRVs, followed by athletics (20) and wrestling (10). Boxing and judo reported four ADRVs each. Four cricketers were also found to have committed ADRVs. India is only behind Russia (167) and Italy (157), while Brazil (78) is fourth.