New Delhi, Oct 13 One of India’s most well-known athletics coaches, Mohammad Yunus Khan, who has guided star long distance runner Gulveer Singh in his formative years, has been provisionally suspended for alleged “complicity” in an unspecified anti-doping rule violation.
Khan, a middle and long distance coach at the prestigious Army Sports Institute in Pune, has been charged by the the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) under Article 2.9 of its rules which relates to ‘complicity or attempted complicity by an athlete or other person’.
Article 2.9 of the NADA Rules prohibits “Assisting, encouraging, aiding, abetting, conspiring, covering up or any other type of intentional complicity or Attempted complicity involving an anti-doping rule violation, attempted anti-doping rule violation or violation.”
The 28-year-old Khan was a long distance runner till 2017 and a medallist in national events. The details and the exact nature of his alleged offence are not known currently.
Khan spotted Gulveer in a cross country race in Arunachal Pradesh in 2021. Gulveer, who joined the Indian Army in 2018, was guided by Khan in his early years at the top level.
He currently holds multiple national records and in the recent Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, he won a silver each in 1500m and 10,000m along with a bronze in 5000m. In the 2022 Asiad, he won a bronze in the 10,000m competition.
In 2024, Gulveer shifted base to Colorado Springs in USA to train under Scott Simmons. Since then, he has been mostly training abroad.
Khan had also spotted another long distance runner, Kartik Kumar, who won a 10,000m silver in the 2022 Asian Games.
But in November 2025, Kartik accepted a three-year ban from the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) after testing positive for a range of banned anabolic agents during out-of-competition tests.
National record holder marathon runner Sawan Barwal, who won a silver in the recent Asian Games in Japan, also trained under Khan at the ASI during his formative years.
Khan was one of the coaches who advised Barwal to shift to marathon instead of running other long distance races.
In April, Barwal broke Shivnath Singh’s 48-year-old marathon national record in Rotterdam. He bettered his own national record while winning the silver in the Asian Games in Japan.
Meanwhile, seven track and field athletes were handed provisional suspensions by the NADA, mostly for steroid doping.
They are Samir Deshmukh (hammer throw), Aditya Patial (800m), Mehardeep Kaur (400m), Sakir (1500m), Amit Majumdar (javelin throw), Shiva Tomar (800m), Rahul (shot put). Wrestlers Sushant Ambaji Tambulkar, Avinash and Chirag were also suspended.
Two weightlifters — Bhawana and a minor — have also been handed provisional suspensions.
(PTI News)
