Huge relief: Narsingh Yadav clears WADA test

Olympic dreams remained alive for wrestler Narsingh Yadav after the hearing of the appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) took place on Thursday at Rio De Janeiro. “This was an open and shut case, Narsingh was always cleared, a delay from NADA’s end saw WADA appeal late. Hence it got very close to the bout, but we were confident Narsingh would be cleared as I had told you. Hence we didn’t update him about the case either. We made sure he concentrated on his game and all turned out well,” said one of the WFI officials.The ace wrestler is scheduled to open his campaign in the men’s 74-kilogram freestyle category on Friday, 19 August. He bagged the quota with a bronze medal finish at last year’s World Championships and then returned positive for a banned steroid following a dope test on 25 June by the National Anti-Doping Agency. NADA’s disciplinary panel exonerated him of all charges, accepting the sabotage theory advanced by his legal team after three days of marathon hearings.Earlier, Narsingh was preferred over Sushil Kumar by the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) to take part in Rio Olympics that fuelled a major legal battle between them.