New Delhi: Since risk of doping in India remains “extremely high”, the country’s athletes will have to meet tougher anti-doping regulations, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced on Monday.
The AIU also relassified the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to Category A from Category B as India was ranked among the top two countries with most anti-doping rule violations between 2022 and 2025.
Deemed the highest risk, Category A federations face stricter regulations to follow rules, including minimum testing thresholds for national-team athletes.
“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’s chairman David Howman said in a statement.
“While the AFI has advocated for anti-doping reforms within India, not enough has changed. The AIU will now work with the AFI to achieve reforms to safeguard the integrity of the sport of athletics, as we have done with other ‘Category A’ member federations.”
In the latest Rule 15 findings, AIU Chair David Howman says India has an ‘extremely high’ doping risk while Bahrain’s anti-doping programme has seen ‘vast improvement’.
Details here: https://t.co/OWKTlYW1IG pic.twitter.com/IyLvbXkkjk
— Athletics Integrity Unit (@aiu_athletics) April 20, 2026
WADA warning for Olympics hopes
India have also topped World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) list of doping offenders for three consecutive years.
Last week while on a trip to India, WADA president Witold Banka met Sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya and top officials of police and intelligence.
He highlighted the ease of availability of performance-enhancing drugs and called for strict action to disrupt supply chains.
Banka reminding that WADA complaince is must if India hopes to host the 2036 Olympics, for which they have placed a bid after winning hosting rights for the 2030 Commonwealth Games.
Mandaviya promised strict action and pledged to criminalise doping in the country while AFI recommitted working hand-in-hand with, WADA, the AIU and National Anti-Doping Agency to reduce extent of the menace.
WADA will review NADA‘s preformance being in the coming months.
The doping problem was pointed out to an Indian delegation that visited the International Olympic Committee (IOC) headquarters in Lausanne last year.