More than 20 athletes from various sports have returned positive for banned drugs in tests conducted during the National Games in Goa in October-November in one of the biggest heaps of doping cases in the country.

Most of the 20-odd dope offenders have been handed provisional suspension by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), which had collected dope samples from the participants in the October 25 to November 9 multi-sport event.

Many have won medals in the Games while there were a few international players. There were nine track and field athletes and seven weightlifters among the dope offenders, according to sources. The most prominent of the seven weightlifters who failed dope tests was Vandana Gupta, a double bronze-medal winner in the Commonwealth Championships.

“Yes, seven weightlifters have failed dope tests during the Goa National Games and there could be more,” a source from the Indian Weightlifting Federation said.

The 29-year-old Vandana, from Uttar Pradesh, had won gold in the women’s 76kg category in Goa with a total lift of 207kg.