World Athletics C’ships: Bhawna Jat out due to anti-doping violation

Tokyo Olympian Bhawna Jat will return from World Athletics Championships without competing after violating the anti-doping rule violation related to whereabouts failure on Wednesday.

As reported by the Hindustan Times, Bhawna Jat has been provisionally suspended by NADA for three whereabouts failures.

Bhawna, who qualified through world rankings for the tournament, was the lone Indian competitor in the women’s 20km race walking after Priyanka Goswami pulled out citing her preparation for the upcoming Asian Games.

Bhawna missed two subsequent doping tests in May and June and then failed to file about her whereabouts.

One of the top race walkers in the country, Bhawna won gold at the Inter-State championships last month, clocking 1hr 37min 3 secs. Her personal best in 20km race walk (1:29:44) came this year at the Indian Race-Walking Championships in Ranchi.

What is Whereabouts Failure?

One of the anti-doping violations is ‘whereabouts failure’. It is a combination of three ‘filing failures’ or ‘missed tests’ within a 12-month period that makes a ‘whereabouts failure’.

An athlete is needed to update their accurate information on their whereabouts every quarter so that they can be located for out-of-competition testing.

Earlier this year, Wrestler Vinesh Phogat was also warned by NADA for failing to file about her whereabouts.

Gymnast Dipa Karmakar, who is coming on the back of a three-year suspension, was suspended on similar grounds by the anti-doping authority.

This is not the first time when an Indian athlete is caught doing just before the start of a major competition.

Right before Asian Athletics Championships in July, Shot putter Karanveer Singh, quarter-miler Anjali Devi and Sprinter Archana Suseendran were caught doping and had to be removed from the squad going to Thailand.