NADA starts whereabouts programme

41 athletes included in first list as anti-doping agency steps up efforts to curb the menace

In its first attempt to implement the ‘whereabouts’ programme in India, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) has drawn up a pool of 41 men and women athletes and asked the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to facilitate the process of gathering ‘whereabouts’ information.

The NADA Registered Testing Pool (RTP) of 21 male and 20 female athletes is an evolving list and NADA may change that list periodically if it deems necessary.

The NADA, which was formed in 2009, was expected to start the wherabouts testing in November last, but the process got stalled time and again.

It is learned the AFI has circulated the NADA notification among chosen athletes and asked them to file their ‘whereabouts’ information within three days, beginning Tuesday.
The athletes would be expected to provide their whereabouts information on a quarterly basis to NADA. They will have to provide a specific 60-minute slot between 5.00 am and 11.00 pm each day in the forthcoming quarter where they would be available for testing.
Testers would be expected to look for them during that time period and if an athlete does not turn up he/she would be considered to have missed a test.

Three missed tests during a one-year period (as per the 2015 World Anti-Doping Agency Code) would attract a sanction of two years subject to a reduction up to one year depending on the athlete’s degree of fault.

The whereabouts list, however, does not mean an athlete cannot be tested outside that time slot. He/she can be tested any time anywhere. All other athletes who are not in the registered testing pool can also be tested anytime anywhere.

Among the Indian athletes, Tintu Luka (800M) and Arpinder Singh (triple jump) are in the IAAF Registered Testing Pool at present. Thus they have been excluded from the NADA list. They can be brought in any time in future. They have been there in the IAAF RTP since November last.

Included in the list are three of the women’s 400M runners who were suspended for doping offences in 2011 — Ashwini Akkunji, Mandeep Kaur and Priyanka Panwar. However, Jauna Murmu, who is part of the ongoing national camp, has been omitted.

For long NADA had felt the need to have an RTP since many of the testing missions to training centres had met with only modest success as top athletes eluded them. Even recently, athletes had eluded testers from the IAAF at Thiruvananthapuram, just before the Federation Cup. Concerns have been growing in the athletics fraternity about the spreading menace of doping. Also of concern was the expected return of Yuri Ogorodonik, the Ukrainian coach of the quartermilers who had tested postive in 2011. The National Registered Pool will ensure that NADA knows where to look for athletes.

NADARegistered TestingPool

Athletics: Men: Krishna Kumar Rane (100M), Jyoti Sankar Debnath (100M), Dharambir Singh (200M), Arokia Rajiv (400M), Sajeesh Joseph (800 m), Rahul Kumar  Pal (10,000m), Naveen Kumar (3000m steeplechase), Sidhanth Thingalaya (110M hurdles), Rajender Singh Dalvir (javelin), Davinder Singh (javelin), Vipin Kasana (javelin), Vikas Gowda (discus), Kamalpreet Singh (hammer throw), Inderjeet Singh (shot put), Om Prakash Singh (shot put), Renjith Maheswary (triple jump), Kumaravel Premkumar (long jump), M Vigneshwar (long jump), Ankit Sharma (long jump), K T Irfan  (20km walk) and Gurmeet Singh (20 km walk).

Women: Saradha Narayana (100M), V Santhini (100M), Asha Roy (100M), M R Poovamma (400M), Anilda Thomas (400M), Mandeep Kaur (400M), Sushma Devi (800M), O P Jaisha (1500/5000/ 10000 /marathon), Sudha Singh (3000M steeplechase), Lalita Babar (3000M steeplechase), Priyanka Panwar (400M), Ashwini Akkunji (400M) , Annu Rani (javelin) Manju Bala Singh (hammer throw), Seema Poonia (nee Antil) (discus throw), Krishna Poonia (discus throw), Mayookha Johny (long jump/triple jump), MA Prajusha (long jump /triple jump), Neena Narayanan (long jump/triple jump), Shraddha Ghule (long jump).