NADA issues notice to Vinesh Phogat for whereabouts failure
Vinayak Padmadeo wrote an article about Vinesh Phogat, a wrestler who has won medals in the World Championships. The article explains that Vinesh Phogat has received a notice from the National Anti-Doping Agency for not correctly reporting her whereabouts. A person from the anti-doping agency visited Vinesh Phogat’s address on June 27. Vinesh could not be found anywhere and was not reachable by phone. The DCO tried for more than 40 minutes to reach her, but she could not get in touch with her. The DCO also called her husband, but he did not respond either. NADA’s project officer, Ankush Gupta, has asked Vinesh to explain why she did not follow the rules about reporting her whereabouts. Athletes in the registered testing pool have to use a system called ADAMS to provide their location information every three months. They need to provide their address, email, phone number, work schedule, training locations, and schedule. Vinesh joined the RTP in December 2022 and needs to reply within 14 days. But Vinesh doesn’t need to worry too much because this is the first time in 12 months that she couldn’t tell her location. If a person fails to report their whereabouts three times in the span of 12 months, it is considered a violation of anti-doping rules. This could result in a two-year suspension. It is worth mentioning that Vinesh is the second Indian wrestler to receive this notice. Pooja Dhanda, who won a bronze medal at the World Championships, has not accurately reported her location three times in the past year. Dhanda did not provide her location information properly in July, October, and December 2022. The committee in charge of the Wrestling federation of India has scheduled the trials for the Asian Games on July 22-23 in New Delhi. On the first day, there will be tryouts for the Greco-Roman and women’s teams. The freestyle trials will take place tomorrow. The trial for the World Championships will take place on August 10-11. Currently, the committee has not been told by the protesting wrestlers if they will join the Asian Games trials. Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat are currently in Kyrgyzstan for training, while Sakshi Malik and Satywart Kadian are training in the United States. We don’t know for sure which wrestlers participated in the protest. The coach, Gian Singh, who is part of the ad hoc committee, said it is very unlikely that they will return, but we will find out in a day or two.
