New Delhi: Indian middle-distance runner Twinkle Chaudhary has been handed a four-year ban for doping after failure to prove her innocence.

A disciplinary tribunal of the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) decied on the sanction against the National Games gold-winning ahlete after she couldn’t prove that a positive sample for a banned substance either didn’t belong to her or was contaminated.

The 30-year-old was placed under provisional suspendion in May last year. She, though, has received acquittal from the charge of breaching the suspension as she proved that she didn’t participate in the Khelo India University Games.

“A period of ineligibility of four years is imposed upon the Athlete, commencing on the date of this decision. The period of Provisional Suspension imposed on the Athlete from 24 June 2025 until the date of this decision is credited against the total period of Ineligibility. The period of Ineligibility will therefore end on 23 June 2029,” the disciplinary tribunal said in its judgement.

Twinkle tested positive for prohibited anabolic steroid Methyltestosterone, which was found in her urine sample collected on May 30 last year.

“In response to the Notice of Allegation, dated 24 June 2025, the Athlete in her explanation on 2 September 2025 indicated that she denied committing the asserted ADRVs (Anti-doping Rule Violations) on the basis that the Sample may not have belonged to her or that it may have been tampered with or contaminated during collection,” the tribunal stated.

Twinkle’s sample, which was collected during the 26th Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, was analysed by the World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratory in Seoul. South Korea.

Having claimed multiple medals at the National Games in Uttarakhand, she had finished fourth in the women’s 800m event in the event.

“The Athlete was unable to explain the presence of Methyltestosterone and its metabolites. Such tests as the Athlete was able to run on the supplements she had ingested, did not reveal the presence of Methyltestosterone,” the tribunal said.

“Her case was that no evidence had been presented of deliberate ingestion. The Athlete indicated that she wished to subject the Sample to DNA testing in order to satisfy herself as to its integrity and provenance. The AIU refused,” it added.

Twinkle’s request for a DNA test was turned down by the tribunal.

“Athlete’s request for a DNA test is dismissed and we do not consider that the Athlete has discharged the burden on her to satisfy us that the doping was not ‘intentional’, and we are accordingly obliged to impose a four year suspension,” it said.