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The Indian boxing team have been handed a massive jolt ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics with the World Championship bronze medallist boxer Praveen Hooda handing suspension by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The Indian boxer, who fetched an Olympic quota in women’s 57kg weight class during Asian Games last year, failed to file her whereabouts.
Hooda, who has been handed 1.5 years suspension, failed to file her whereabout in the period from April 2022 to March 2023 as per WADA rules. According to WADA rules, “any combination of three whereabouts failures (filing failure and/or missed test) within a period of 12 months constitute an anti-doping rule violation, for which the applicable sanction is 2 years’ ineligibility, subject to a reduction to a minimum of 1 year depending on your degree of fault.”
Moreover, the athletes included in the Registered Testing Pool (RTP) must provide full address for their overnight location, the name and full address of each location where they train, work or conduct other regular scheduled activities, as well as the usual time-frames of each activity. These athletes are also required to identify 60-minute window and location for each day of the quarter, during which they must be available for testing and a failure here will comply with breaching of whereabouts.
Praveen Hooda’s coach reacts on the suspension
The Indian athlete’s coach Sudhir Hooda also opened up on the suspension handed for whereabouts failure. “She has been suspended by WADA for 1.5 years. The suspension starts this month. It will go on till November 2025,” Sudhir Hooda told PTI.
Furthermore, Praveen’s lawyer, Vidushpat Singhania also added that they are in talks with the International Testing Agency (ITA) and are pushing to get the sanctions removed. “We have been in correspondence with multiple parties including the ITA and WADA ombudsman. We are trying our best for a no sanction or reduced one,” he added.
“We are trying for them to withdraw the notice for whereabouts failure, if that happens there will be no sanction. We are looking to finalise it immediately because of the Olympic quota place,” he continued.
However, it is to be noted that even if the sanction is reduced to a year, Praveen will not be able to compete at the Paris Olympics, set to take place in July - August this year.
