By Ben Efe, in New Delhi

Indian race walker Rani Yadav has tested positive for a banned steroid and provisionally suspended from the Commonwealth Games.

The 20_year_old, who finished sixth in the women’s 20km race walk, was to have a hearing Wednesday.
“The CGF can now confirm that the A sample of Ms Rani Yadav… was found to contain 19_Norandrosterone, a prohibited Anabolic Agent under category S1 of the World Anti_Doping Agency list of prohibited substances and methods,” read a statement.

Norandrosterone is a metabolite of the banned muscle_building steroid nandrolone.
Yadav is the third athlete to fail a dope test at the October Games after Nigerians Osayomi Oludamola, who was stripped of the 100m gold medal, and 110m hurdler Samuel Okon.“It’s very unfortunate,” Lalit Bhanot, secretary general of the local organising committee, said.

“We tried our level best. Not only the federations but also the National Anti_Doping Agency tried with our out_of_competition tests.

“The government is very serious about these things. One can’t be controlled if the person is trying to take some forbidden substance to enhance their performance.”

More than 1,300 tests had been performed as at Tuesday, Fennell said, and there had been three positive tests.
Oludamola lost the 100m title after her B sample confirmed a positive test for a banned stimulant.

Okon also tested positive for methylhexaneamine but waived his right to have his B Sample tested and was also disqualified.

Doping has been a recurring problem in India with weightlifting producing the highest number of offenders.
“We had taken 727 samples from the India Commonwealth Games probable team and some were even removed from the final team after testing positive,” Dr Rahul Bhatnagar, the director general of India’s National Anti_Doping Agency, said.

“We wanted to send out the message that we won’t tolerate doping. If one has been caught, it will be a lesson to all the athletes.”