“I think NADA likes me very much, that's why it is calling me for a dope test,” said high jumper Angel Devasia, who finished fourth in the National Open athletics championships here, as a National Anti-Doping Agency official asked her to give a test.
In 2018, Angel soared to a personal best 1.83m in Thiruvananthapuram. That made her the country's best high jumper that season, a year when she also won the gold at the varsities Nationals at Moodbidri, Karnataka.
“But I had a ligament injury in 2019, so I virtually lost the whole of that year. I resumed training the next year, but then because of the COVID pandemic, I lost a whole year again. Now, I've been doing proper workouts for the last two months,” the 26-year-old told The Hindu on Thursday.
She had won the high jump gold at the inter-state Nationals in Patiala in June.
“I just did the inter-state without any practice. I did only 1.65m, but I got the gold as there only two high jumpers there.”
Making waves
Indian sprinters, quartermilers, javelin throwers, discus throwers and shot putters have been making waves in the international circuit, but that is not the case with the country's women high jumpers in the last few years.
The NADA appears to be on an aggressive testing spree at the National Open here. Every gold medallist was tested and, in some cases, the minor medallists too.
Since the National Open is the last major athletics meet this year, it looks like the NADA is in some sort of hurry to reach the year's testing target. But the fact is, many of the top names are missing here though the World Championships (in Oregon, US, July 15-24)
The Olympics got over a month ago. It will be interesting to know how many out-of-competition tests the NADA conducted this year. Did it target the prime suspects? Did it test them at them the right time? And how many times were they tested?
With the World Championships, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and the under-20 Worlds lined up next year, the NADA will have much work to do.
