Punjab girl Mandeep was a member of the gold-winning Indian 4x400 relay quartet in the 2010 Asian Games also, but she was banned for two years from 2011 till 2013 for steroid doping only to return to top-flight competition this year only.
"Those two years were so painful but I did not lose hope. I wanted to come back and I knew I could do it. But I never thought that I could come back like this and win a gold in the Asian Games so soon," Mandeep told PTI on the sidelines of a felicitation event.
"We were shooed away from everywhere we had approached for training. We were told we cannot use any government facilities. I feel that my gold in the Asian Games was a slap on the face of those people who had treated us like that," said 26-year-old runner.
The same quartet had also won a 4x400m relay gold in the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games before the doping scandal in 2011 had made them pariahs of Indian athletics for some time.