SportsAthletics
NADA provisionally suspends Army distance running coach Mohd Yunus Khan
The Army Sports Institute coach, who has trained national record holders Gulveer Singh and Sawan Barwal, faces a charge of complicity in another person's doping violation.
Key points
- Coach Mohd Yunus Khan has been provisionally suspended by the National Anti-Doping Agency.
- The charge is complicity under Article 2.9, not a failed test.
- A proven complicity charge carries a ban of two years to life.
The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) has provisionally suspended Mohd Yunus Khan, a long and middle-distance running coach at the Army Sports Institute in Pune.
Khan appears on NADA’s list of provisionally suspended people under Article 2.9 of the National Anti-Doping Rules, which deals with “complicity or attempted complicity”. The charge does not concern a failed test. It relates to an alleged role in an anti-doping violation by someone else.
Article 2.9 covers assisting, encouraging, aiding, abetting, conspiring in or covering up another person’s violation. If the charge is proved, the penalty ranges from two years’ ineligibility to a lifetime ban, depending on how serious the case is.
The case now goes through NADA’s hearing process, and the provisional suspension keeps Khan out of any coaching role in sport until it is decided. It has not been made public which athlete’s case the charge is linked to.
Khan has coached some of India’s best distance runners, among them Gulveer Singh, a Commonwealth and Asian Games medallist, and marathon record holder Sawan Barwal, an Asian Games silver medallist. Both hold national records. Neither athlete has been linked to the charge.
The suspension follows another coaching case this year. In August, coach Rakesh Kumar was banned for life under Article 2.8, which covers administering or trying to administer banned substances to athletes.