An international disciplinary tribunal has handed middle-distance runner Twinkle Chaudhary a four-year ban for testing positive for anabolic steroid Methyltestosterone in the Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea, in May 2025. It also invited World Athletics’ Integrity Unit (AIU) to consider modifying its rules around DNA testing.
Twinkle Chaudhary expectedly pleaded not guilty of doping, even if the supplements she had tested later all showed up negative for Methyltestosterone. Through her counsel Saurabh Mishra, she maintained that her sample may have been tampered with or contaminated. She also believed AIU’s refusal to allow a DNA analysis was against the rules of fairness.
The athlete argued that since there was no evidence of a dosing pattern, no adverse findings earlier, no involvement of coaches, doctors or third parties and no credible rationale for deliberate ingestion of methyltestosterone, she should have been allowed a DNA analysis of the sample.
On it part, AIU submitted that a DNA test does not form part of the usual procedure and is not provided for in the regulations. It said the athlete had to establish a departure from the World Anti-Doping Agency’s International Standards for Testing and Investigation relating to sample collection or handling for the burden of proof would shift to the anti-doping organisation.
Despite upholding AIU decision to not allow a DNA test of the sample collected in Gumi, the Tribunal has invited AIU to reconsider its policy on DNA testing where an athlete requests it and is willing to pay for the test. “It is necessary to have in mind the need for transparency, a fair trial and equality of arms,” the Tribunal said.
“We recognise that there may be practical problems, and that AIU may not wish the positive sample to leave its custody. But it is important that there is as much transparency as possible in testing and examination, and the athlete who believes themselves innocent of wrongdoing has virtually no opportunity to explore how the positive finding may have occurred,” it said.
Twinkle Chaudhary finished fourth in the women’s 800m in the Asian Championships, clocking 2:03.33. It was in winning the Federation Cup Championshipsin a time of 2:00.71 in in Kochi on April 25 last year that she may have drawn the attention of AIU. Her previous best was 2:02.98. She had quit her Railway job and was pursuing Masters in Physical Education.
Loophole allowed Twinkle’s name to be entered in University Games?
The other extremely concerning fact that emerges from the order of the Tribunal does not have anything to do with doping but exposes a significant loophole in the entry mechanism for the Khelo India University Games (KIUG). That came about when the Tribunal examined the AIU allegation that Twinkle Chaudhary competed in during Provisional Suspension.
The Tribunal accepted Twinkle Chaudhary’s submission that she travelled to Rajasthan only to meet her friends rather than to compete in KIUG. The 30-year-old also said she was ineligible to compete in KIUG since the event is restricted to those under 25 years of age and had no idea who entered her name for the competition.
It raises a critical question on how her name made it to the entry list in the first place. Was the Khelo India Games Management System unable to figure out that the Guru Nanak Dev University athlete is age-barred? Why did it not reject her entry? It causes doubts if quite a few athletes escaped the age filter and competed in KIUG 2025.
Photo: Twinkle Chaudhary (right) with Pooja
