Athletics
Indian runner G Lakshmanan banned for two years by NADA
Indian runner G Lakshmanan was banned for two years by the National Anti-Doping Agency for failing to submit his whereabouts.
Indian distance runner G Lakshmanan was banned by NADA for three whereabouts clause violations including one missed test on Friday.
Lakshmanan won two gold medals in the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships in 5000m and 10,000m,
The athlete failed to file whereabouts information during the third (July to September) and fourth (October to December) quarters in 2022 and missed one test on March 26, 2023.
Lakshmanan, who was included in NADA's Registered Testing Pool (RTP) for the major part of 2022, was banned by the NADA'a Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel for two years from August 10, 2023 onwards in an order passed on March 19, 2024.
Athletes who are inducted into the Registered Testing Pool of NADA have to make quarterly whereabouts submissions. They also have to furnish their regular activities and provide 60 minutes each day when he or she will be available for testing.
If RTP athletes fail to file their whereabouts information, fail to keep the information up to date or fail to be available during their identified 60-minute window, they commit a whereabouts failure.
Any combination of three whereabouts failures within 12 months by an RTP athlete may result in an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) and hence attract sanction.
NADA issued a notification to Lakshmanan on August 10, 2023, informing him about the ADRV and that he was provisionally suspended from participating in any further events till the conclusion of disciplinary proceedings.
Lakshmanan acknowledged the whereabouts information filing failures and explained his side by citing his daughter's illness as the reason for missing the test.
He also submitted that he attempted to update his whereabouts information but faced technical difficulties. Additionally, he also stated that he was injured and undergoing Ayurvedic treatment at that time.
NADA submitted that the Dope Control Officer (DCO) reached the location (an address at Coonoor, Tamil Nadu) provided in the athlete's whereabouts information during the relevant 60-minute slot between 7 pm to 8 pm.
The Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel ruled Lakshmanan's explanations "unsatisfactory" and handed him a two-year ban from August 10, 2023, the date of the provisional suspension.
