India’s National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) has handed athletics coach Rakesh Kumar a lifetime ban for administering prohibited substances to athletes competing in athletics, weightlifting and powerlifting.
Kumar has been suspended since March 2025. That period will count toward the commencement of his lifetime ban, because apparently even a lifetime ban requires some attention to the calendar.
Meanwhile, powerlifter Gaurav Vats has been provisionally suspended in a case involving the alleged possession and trafficking of prohibited substances.
Sprinter Prakruthi Roopa Rao has also been provisionally suspended after an adverse analytical finding for the anabolic steroids Stanozolol and Drostanolone.
Rao, a bronze medallist at the National Inter-State Championships, is among seven athletes added to NADA’s latest provisional suspension list.
The other athletes include 400-metre runner Kaushal Kumar, steeplechaser Jujhar Singh and long-distance race walker Baljeet Kaur.
Kumar’s case is particularly notable because his activities allegedly extended beyond one sport. NADA says the coach supplied prohibited substances to athletes in athletics, weightlifting and powerlifting.
So, while the list of suspended athletes continues to grow, so too does the familiar question in anti-doping: how many people were involved, how long did it go on, and how many others have yet to appear on a list?
For now, NADA’s latest update adds one lifetime ban, one provisional suspension involving alleged possession and trafficking, and five additional athletics-related names to the growing paperwork pile.
