Mangalore: It’s another setback to Ashwini Akkunji, athlete from Dakshina Kannada district, and five other women athletes of India who were dreaming of making it to the Olympics. The athletes who were caught for doping are in for bad times with the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Lausanne, Switzerland upholding IAAF’s appeal to impose two-year ban on them.

A NADA panel had earlier banned the athletes for one year  on the ground that they did not know that the food supplement they have been provided by their coach contain prohibited substance.

But the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) filed an appeal to the CAS against the NADA panel decision, stating that the athletes should not be given any lenient treatment and they should be banned for two years as per the rules.

Besides Akkunji, the other five are 4X400m relay quartet members Sini Jose and Mandeep Kaur and three others namely Priyanka Panwar, Juana Murmu and Tiana Mary Thomas. The period of their one-year ban by the NADA panel ended last month.