Athlete Gomathi Marimuthu has been banned for four years and stripped of her 2019 Asian Championships gold medal, the Athletics Integrity Unity (AIU) announced on Friday.

The AIU said that the 31-year-old Indian runner will be banned until May 2023 and disqualified from all races in a two-month period last year. The decision to ban her was taken after her sample ‘B’ also confirmed the presence of nandrolone, which is a banned steroid. Earlier, Gomathi tested positive for anabolic steroid nandrolone at the 2019 Asian championships in April. 

All of Gomathi's competition results between March 18 and May 17, 2019 stand annulled. The Tamil Nadu athlete's medals, titles, ranking points and prize and appearance money are to be forfeited as well.

Gomathi can now appeal the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Gomathi Marimuthu won the gold medal in the women's 800m race at the 2019 Asian Athletics Championships held in Doha, Qatar, clocking a personal best of 2:02:70 (2 minutes, 2.70 seconds). It was the first time an Indian had won gold in the women's 800m event in the competition.

Before the Asian Athletics Championships, at the Federation Cup held in the same year, 2019, she clocked a personal best of 2:03.21 (2 minutes, 3.21 seconds). 

She had beaten the likes of China's Asian Games champion Wang Chunyu and Kazakhstan's former two-time Asiad winner Margarita Mukasheva, to win the Asian title in Doha.

(With TNM Inputs)