India continues to top the global list of athletes and support staff serving bans for doping and related offences, according to the latest list released by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), news agency PTI reported.The AIU list has 162 names from India, the most among all countries. Kenya is second with 148 names, while Russia is third with more than 60 cases.The list includes people serving bans for doping violations. It also includes those found guilty of anti-doping rule violations such as tampering, test avoidance, human trafficking or failure to provide whereabouts information, as these offenses carry the same penalties as doping offences.The Athletics Integrity Unit is an independent anti-doping body established by World Athletics. Supervises international level athletes and their support staff.India moved ahead of Kenya for the first time in April this year and remained at the top when the June list was released.Earlier in April, World Athletics classified India as an “extremely high” doping risk country after topping the list of athletics doping violators for the previous two years.Following the recent AIU board decision, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has been moved from Category B to Category A under Rule 15 of the World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules.“Unfortunately, the quality of the domestic anti-doping program is simply not commensurate with the risk of doping,” AIU President David Howman said in a statement.India was among the two countries with the highest number of anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs) in athletics from 2022 to 2025.According to AIU, India has recorded 48 ADRVs (ranked second) in 2022, 63 (ranked second) in 2023, 71 (ranked first) in 2024 and 30 ADRVs (ranked first) in 2025.Under the World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules, the AIU Committee places member federations into different risk categories based on their doping records. Category A represents the highest risk, Category B represents medium risk and Category C represents low risk.Member federations in category A must meet stricter anti-doping requirements. This includes maintaining and implementing an annual testing program that complies with the International Standard for Testing and Investigations.The testing program must ensure that athletes selected for a national team at any World Athletics Series event, Olympic Games or World Athletics Championships, who are not already in an international registered testing pool, are appropriately tested.The AIU reviews each member federation’s category every three years by examining factors such as the doping history of athletes and athlete support staff. However, he can change his alliance category at any time during that three-year period.
