Indian athletes face tougher dope testing as federation banished to highest-risk bracket
World’s most populous country ranked in top two for most anti-doping violations in the sport in 2022-2025, Athletics Integrity Unit says
India has been elevated to a list of nations including Russia where there is an “extremely high” risk of doping, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said on Monday.
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) joins the likes of Russia, Belarus, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Ukraine in the AIU’s highest rating of Category A after being moved up from Category B.
Category A means India’s athletes must now comply with more stringent anti-doping requirements, including minimum testing thresholds for national-team athletes, the AIU said.
The world’s most populous country ranked in the top two for the most anti-doping violations in athletics between 2022 and 2025, it added.
“The doping situation in India has been high-risk for a long time and, unfortunately, the quality of the domestic anti-doping programme is simply not proportionate to the doping risk,” AIU chair David Howman said.
“While the AFI has advocated for anti-doping reforms within India, not enough has changed.