The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) has provisionally suspended star sprinter Hima Das for three whereabouts failures in the past 12 months. The 23-year-old, currently recuperating from an injury, has been out of the national camp after suffering a hamstring injury at the Indian Grand Prix (IGP) IV in Bengaluru in April.

Indian athletics chief coach Radhakrishnan Nair had earlier said that Hima had suffered a hamstring injury in April just before the IGP in Bengaluru, and she has been on “medical investigation and treatment”.

Advertisement

The Assam sprinter had subsequently missed the Federation Cup in Ranchi in May and the National Inter-State Championship, which was the final selection event for the Asian Games, in June in Bhubaneswar.

Hima has already withdrawn from the upcoming 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

The Statesman tried to get in touch with the athlete for her reaction but she did not reply to the messages. Later, one of her long-time coaches told this newspaper on the condition of anonymity that the athlete hasn’t committed anything wrong and the truth will be out very soon. He said that the athlete has submitted all documents regarding her ongoing treatment.

“It’s true that she might have missed the second test as she was participating at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and immediately on return, had to start training for the 36th National Games in Gujarat, last year. But she is still trying to ascertain the date when she missed the first test. As far as the third test is concerned, she was already out of the camp by April after injuring her hamstring,” the coach told The Statesman.

According to the World Athletics Anti-Doping (WADA) guidelines, a combination of three whereabouts failures including a filing failure and a missed test or both within a period of 12 months will constitute an anti-doping rule violation. And as such, Hima faces a maximum two-year ban, which can be reduced to a minimum of one year depending on the degree of her fault.

Nicknamed ‘The Dhing Express’, 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.

Last month, race walker Bhawna Jat pulled out of the World Athletics Championships in Hungary after three whereabouts failures. She was handed a provisional suspension by the NADA.

In July, the NADA issued notice on multiple World Championships medallist and Asian Championships gold winner Vinesh Phogat for whereabouts failure for the first time in 12 months.