Hima Das exonerated by NADA Appeal Panel of doping charge arising from whereabout failures

Hima Das. Pic/AFP

Star India sprinter Hima Das has received an all-clear from the NADA's Anti-Doping Appeal Panel (ADAP) which exonerated her from doping charges arising out of three whereabout failures in 12 months. The 24-year-old Hima was last year provisionally suspended by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) for three whereabout failures in a span of 12 months. She was, however, cleared by the Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (ADDP) following a hearing in March. She returned to action in 200m at the Indian Grand Prix 1 in Bengaluru on April 30. In a September 4 decision, the Anti-Doping Appeal Panel upheld the Disciplinary Panel's ruling to clear her of doping charges.

"The ADDP order is upheld. Athlete exonerated from doping charges," stated the latest update on ADAP decisions on the NADA website. No further details were available regarding who appealed the Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel's decision, but it is likely that NADA initiated the appeal as the body has previously appealed in such cases when decisions favoured athletes. Hima had won a 400m individual silver at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games. She was also a part of the gold and silver-winning women's 4x400m and mixed 4x400m relay quartets in Jakarta.

The runner from Assam was not named in the Hangzhou Asian Games team last year due to an injury she had sustained earlier this year. In September last year, it had come to light that Hima committed three whereabout failures in a one-year period and she was provisionally suspended by the NADA. At that time also, there was no clarity on whether Hima's whereabouts failure related to filing or missed test. Under the World Anti-Doping Agency (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, which carries a maximum two-year ban if proven guilty.

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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. RTP athletes must also identify a 60-minute window and location for each day of the quarter, during which they must be available for testing. Failure to comply with whereabouts and testing obligations result in a whereabouts failure. A lower-back problem has been troubling Hima for the past few years. Indian athletics chief coach Radhakrishnan Nair had earlier said that Hima had suffered a hamstring injury too in April last year just before a Grand Prix event in Bengaluru, and she has been on "medical investigation and treatment". That was why Hima missed the Federation Cup and the National Inter-State Championship in 2023, which was the final selection event for the Hangzhou Asian Games.

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