Anmol Vasistha
Introduction
Anmol Vasistha is an Indian para athletics javelin thrower who was banned from the sport for three years by the International Paralympic Committee after testing positive for a metabolite of dehydrochloromethyl-testosterone (DHCMT), an anabolic androgenic steroid on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s 2026 Prohibited List. The positive sample was collected in competition on 11 March 2026 during the men’s javelin throw F55 event at the New Delhi 2026 World Para Athletics Grand Prix. The IPC announced the sanction on 16 October 2026: a period of ineligibility running from 24 April 2026 β the date of his provisional suspension β to 23 April 2029, disqualification of all his results from the Grand Prix and from the period between the sample collection and the suspension, and forfeiture of any medals, points and prizes from those results.
Background Information
Vasistha competes in the F55 classification of para athletics javelin, a seated-throwing class, and his sanctioned result came at the New Delhi 2026 World Para Athletics Grand Prix, part of the IPC’s international para athletics circuit held in India. The IPC’s anti-doping programme operates in compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code, and the DHCMT metabolite found in his sample is listed on WADA’s 2026 Prohibited List under the class S1.1 Anabolic Androgenic Steroids β substances prohibited at all times, in and out of competition. DHCMT is the same long-detectable steroid class involved in several recent Indian anti-doping cases. Vasistha was provisionally suspended on 24 April 2026, 44 days after the sample was collected, while the case was resolved; he subsequently accepted the anti-doping rule violation and the consequences the IPC proposed, which is what produced the agreed three-year term. The IPC reported the outcome in a press release on 16 October 2026.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Banned three years for doping. The IPC sanctioned Vasistha for an adverse analytical finding for a DHCMT metabolite at the New Delhi 2026 Grand Prix, wiping his results from the meet and barring him until April 2029 after he accepted the violation.
The case’s facts, per the IPC’s announcement: Vasistha returned an adverse analytical finding for a metabolite of DHCMT in urine provided in competition on 11 March 2026 during the men’s javelin throw F55 event at the New Delhi 2026 World Para Athletics Grand Prix. The IPC provisionally suspended him on 24 April 2026 pending resolution of the case. The athlete subsequently accepted his commission of the anti-doping rule violation and the consequences proposed by the IPC. As a result, he is ineligible for all competition and other sporting activities β except authorised anti-doping education or rehabilitation programmes β for three years from 24 April 2026 until 23 April 2029.
The results consequences were broad. His result in the men’s javelin throw F55 competition at the Grand Prix was automatically disqualified, with forfeiture of any medals, points and prizes. All other results he obtained at the New Delhi 2026 Grand Prix were also disqualified on the same terms, and in addition all other results obtained from the date the samples were collected until the start of the provisional suspension were disqualified with all resulting consequences. The IPC’s release also stated the strict-liability principle that governed the case: each athlete is strictly liable for the substances found in their sample, and an anti-doping rule violation occurs whenever a prohibited substance or its metabolites are found, whether or not the athlete used it intentionally or was at fault. Aggregator coverage of the decision, published in early November 2026, noted the three-year term matched the ban the IPC had given Iranian para athlete Seyed Aliasghar Javanmardi in a separate oxandrolone case.
Public Reaction and Consequences
No public response from Vasistha has been reported; the case’s public record is the IPC’s own announcement and the news coverage that followed it. The consequences are disqualifying and exclusionary at once: every result from the New Delhi 2026 Grand Prix β the meet where the sample was taken β is erased from the record along with everything between March and April 2026, and the ban runs through 23 April 2029, covering the next full Par Games cycle and removing him from all IPC-sanctioned competition, rankings and selection for that period. Because he accepted the violation, there is no contested proceeding, no tribunal decision beyond the agreed consequences, and no reported appeal or CAS challenge. The IPC’s framing closed its announcement with its standing commitment “to a doping-free sporting environment” at all levels of para sport.
Current Status
Vasistha, an Indian F55 javelin thrower, is serving a three-year period of ineligibility that began on 24 April 2026 and runs to 23 April 2029, during which he is barred from all competition and other sporting activities apart from authorised anti-doping education or rehabilitation programmes. His New Delhi 2026 World Para Athletics Grand Prix results, and all results between the sample collection and the provisional suspension, stand disqualified with medals, points and prizes forfeited. The three-year term was accepted rather than adjudicated, and the ban makes the 2028-29 season the earliest he could return to international para athletics.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The ban removes Vasistha from para athletics for his prime competitive years: at a period of ineligibility ending in April 2029, he loses the 2026 and 2027 and 2028 seasons entirely, including any path from Grand Prix circuit results toward major-championship selection in the F55 javelin. The disqualification of all his New Delhi 2026 Grand Prix results β not just the javelin event but every event he contested at that meet β erases the results that would have anchored rankings and funding cases during the ban. In Indian para sport, where DHCMT cases have recurred, his accepted violation adds a third-year-ban precedent to the IPC’s recent record alongside Javanmardi’s oxandrolone case. The record he carries back in 2029, if he returns, will begin from zero results and a completed sanction β the standard aftermath of an accepted anti-doping rule violation under the World Anti-Doping Code.