Lovish Chauhan
North News
Chandigarh, September 26
The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) on Wednesday served a notice to Vinesh Phogat for whereabouts failure and sought an explanation within 14 days. All the athletes registered with NADA’s Registered Testing Pool (RTP), of which Vinesh is a part, are required to provide details about their availability for dope tests and if they fill out the details and are found not available at that location at that given time, it is considered a whereabouts failure.
Post her retirement from wrestling after the 2024 Paris Olympics, Vinesh has joined the Congress party recently and is contesting the upcoming Haryana Assembly election from the Julana constituency.
“A Dope Control Officer (DCO) was sent to test you on that day at that time and place. However, he was unable to locate you for testing as you were not available at the given location,” said the notice by NADA. Vinesh needs to either accept the failure or provide evidence that she was present in that location for about 60 minutes.
One whereabouts failure does not constitute an anti-doping rule violation, as there must be three whereabouts failures (whether filing failures or missed tests) within a 12-month period for NADA to charge an athlete.
