Three Indian swimmers test positive

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Three Indian swimmers, including two from the country's Commonwealth Games squad, were provisionally suspended on Sunday for failing dope tests.

National record holder Richa Mishra and Jyotsna Pansare, both part of India's 26-member aquatic squad for the Oct. 3-14 Games, tested positive for Methylhexaneamine, used as a nasal decongestant, along with Amar Muralitharan, Swimming Federation of India (SFI) secretary general Virendra Nanavati said.

"We now have to convene a meeting of the selectors and identify the replacements," Nanavati told Reuters.

"We submitted our entry well within the Sept. 3 deadline but now we have to seek permission from the Indian Olympic Association and also the Commonwealth Games Federation to make changes to the squad," he said.

Nanavati said the samples were collected during the senior national aquatic championship in Jaipur last month after which the National Anti-Doping Agency informed the SFI that three swimmers had failed the test.

On Thursday, four Indian wrestlers were axed from the Commonwealth Games squad after they also tested positive for Methylhexaneamine.

Nanavati said the swimmers remain suspended till their B samples are tested.

"Once they tested positive, they stand suspended with immediate effect. Now if their B samples also test positive, they can appeal for a hearing and after that the quantum of their punishment would be determined."

Doping has long been a bane for Indian sports, especially weightlifting which produces the highest number of offenders. After six lifters flunked drug tests last year, the Indian Weightlifting Federation was slapped a $500,000 fine by the international body, which threatened to ban the federation if the amount was not cleared in full by August.

The Indian lifters' participation in the Commonwealth Games looked uncertain as the IWF could pay only $125,000 from its funds.

Eventually, the Games organisers granted them an interest-free loan to make up the shortfall.