Jind: Former wrestler and Congressman from Julana district Vinesh Phogat with husband and wrestler Somvir Rathee and others while filing his name for the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections, Wednesday, September 11, 2024. (Photo: PTI )
The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) on Wednesday issued a notice to wrestler Vinesh Phogat regarding his whereabouts failure and sought an explanation within 14 days.
All athletes registered with NADA’s Registered Testing Pool (RTP), of which Vinesh is a part, are required to provide information about their availability for dope testing.
If they fill out the information and are found to be unavailable at that location at that time, it is considered a failure to locate you.
NADA, according to its notification, told the suspect-turned-politician that he failed to find out where he was as he was not found to undergo a dope test on September 9 at his home in Kharkhoda village of Sonepat.
Vinesh announced his retirement from the sport after a disappointing end to his Paris Olympics campaign, where he reached the final but was disqualified before his gold medal due to obesity.
Vinesh and his running mate Bajrang Punia joined the Congress party recently and will contest the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections from Julana constituency.
He is busy campaigning in Julana district these days.
“You are therefore hereby served with formal notice to inform you of the apparent failure to comply with ADR requirements, and to invite your comments before we take a final decision on the matter,” read the NADA notice.
“The Dope Control Officer (DCO) was sent to test you at that time and place. However, he could not get you to be tested because you were not available at the given place.”
Vinesh needs to accept failure or provide proof that he was at that location for about 60 minutes.
It can be said that failure where it is does not constitute an anti-doping rule violation. There must be three residency failures (including failures or missed tests) within a 12-month period for NADA to charge an athlete.
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First published: Sep 26 2024 | 9:22 AM IST