Indian Racewalker Bhawna Jat Provisionally Suspended for Whereabouts Failure

The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) provisionally suspended the Indian racewalker, Bhawna Jat, after she omitted to submit the whereabouts details. On account of the suspension, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) cancelled her participation in the World Championships.

According to World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) regulations, filing failure and missed test are the two types of whereabouts failures; athletes not submitting the required quarterly report detailing their whereabouts amounts to filing failure, whereas a missed test occurs when an athlete fails to show up for the drug test within the timeframe specified in their whereabouts file.

Any combination of three whereabouts failures (i.e., filing failure and/ or missed test) over the course of a year constitutes an anti-doping rule violation, for which the applicable penalty is two years of ineligibility, subject to a reduction to a minimum of one year based on the degree of the athlete’s fault.

To be included in the Registered Testing Pool (RTP), an athlete must provide the name, entire address, and times of each location where they train, work, or participate in other regularly scheduled activities. RTP athletes must select a window of 60 minutes and a place for testing each day of the quarter. A breach of the whereabouts and testing duties will lead to a whereabouts failure.

The whereabouts failure was not deliberate, Ms. Jat informed the media. She added that she had trouble obtaining the OTP from the mobile application while completing the form, so she was unsure how this had come about. It is also contended that she misplaced her phone later on.