The national governing body for sport in Pakistan, Pakistan Sports Board (PSB), in partnership with the Anti-Doping Organization of Pakistan (ADOP) announced on Friday that amateur cyclist Natalia Khan has been banned three years after testing positive for performance enhancing steroids.

In October 2024, The International News reported Khan tested positive for unspecified anabolic androgen steroids during a random out-of-competition test performed in August. She was then preliminarily suspended from competition pending the outcome of an anti-doping hearing.

Now a final decision has been handed down via PSB, with Khan banned from participating in sport in any capacity for three years.

Khan is primarily a track sprinter, but she also won the Marhaba Jashan-e-Azadi Cycling Road Race celebrating Pakistan’s 76th Inde­pendence Day. 

The PSB announcement of her ban, along with banning 7 non-cycling athletes, comes on the heals of World Anti-Doping Agency placing ADOP on their “watchlist”, alleging the national anti-doping organization has “outstanding non-conformities” within their program.

Photo Credit: PSB, Facebook/natalia.khan.5

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