The Indian Commonwealth Games delegation suffered a setback on the opening day of Glasgow 2026 when judoka Arun Kumar withdrew from the competition after failing a drug test.The rising 73kg judoka was declared disqualified after unfavorable analytical results were found in out-of-competition testing conducted by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA). His withdrawal reduced the Indian sports team from 125 to 124 players.Arun quickly rose through the junior and senior levels to become one of the best medal hopefuls in Indian judo. He trained at the Energetic Sports Academy and won a gold medal at the 2023 Macau Junior Asian Cup, followed by another gold medal at the 2025 Taipei Asian Open and a bronze medal at the Hong Kong Asian Open. He also finished seventh at the prestigious Tashkent Grand Slam earlier this year and was selected for the Commonwealth Games for the first time.Despite strict anti-doping testing before the Olympics, Allen withdrew from the competition. Indian athletes underwent two rounds of testing before traveling to Glasgow, while those training overseas were tested in coordination with the host country’s anti-doping agency.There have been several doping cases recently, particularly in the field of weightlifting, where several Indian weightlifters tested positive ahead of the Olympics, resulting in the country’s weightlifter quota being reduced from 16 to 12 athletes.The Athletics Integrity Unit and national sports federations work with NADA to monitor athletes and educate them on anti-doping rules before the Olympics.India had initially given permission to send a team of 126 athletes to Glasgow. The country’s field has now been reduced to 124 contestants after recent withdrawals, including that of Arun Kumar.
