India 'extremely high' doping risk: Athletics Integrity Unit

India has been elevated to a list of nations including Russia where there is an “extremely high” risk of doping, the Athletics Integrity Unit said on Monday.

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) joins the likes of Russia, Belarus, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Ukraine in the AIU’s highest rating of Category A after being moved up from Category B.

Category A means India’s athletes must now comply with more stringent anti-doping requirements.

The world’s most populous country ranked in the top two for the most anti-doping violations in athletics between 2022 and 2025, the AIU said.

“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,” AIU chair David Howman said.

“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.”

The AIU is an independent body tasked with fighting corruption and wrongdoing, including doping, in athletics.

India is set to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games, seen as a stepping stone for its ambition of staging the 2036 Olympics.

In the latest doping case in Indian athletics, Asian Games gold medallist archer Prathamesh Jawkar has been banned for two years.

He accepted the punishment for a whereabouts failure and will miss the Asian Games in September-October in Japan.

World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) chief Witold Banka was in New Delhi last week and said India is the biggest producer of performance-enhancing drugs.

However he noted that India consistently leading the list of drug cheats will not hamper its chances of hosting prestigious global sporting events.