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India’s star sprinter Hima Das got a clean chit by the NADA’s Anti-Doping Appeal Panel (ADAP) which exonerated her from the doping charges which arose out of three whereabouts failures in 12 months. Hima received a provisional suspension by the National Anti Doping Agency last year for three whereabouts failures. However, she was cleared by NADA’s Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (ADDP) after a hearing in March.
The 24-year-old returned to track in April when she participated at the 200m event of Indian Grand Prix 1. Later in September, the ADAP upheld the Disciplinary Panel’s ruling to clear her of doping charges. While no further details were available regarding who appealed the decision, the NADA likely initiated the appeal as the body had previously appealed in such cases of various athletes.
What are Whereabouts Failures?
Whereabouts Failure is one of the violations of the National Anti Doping Agency. It is a combination of three ‘fling failures’ or ‘missed tests’ within a span of 12 months. To avoid the failure, an athlete needs to update their accurate information on their whereabouts every four months so that they can be located for sudden out-of-competition testing. Those athletes who are included in the Registered Testing Pool (RTP) must provide their full address for their overnight location.
Not only this, but those athletes must also provide the complete address of where they train, work or conduct regular activities, along with their time frames. The RTP athletes must also identify a 60-minute window and location for each day of the quarter during which they are available for testing.
