NEW DELHI: About 89 male and 60 female sportspersons will form part of the National Anti-Doping Agency's (NADA) 'registered testing pool' (RTP) for the year 2023, including seven athletes with disabilities. This is an increase of 18 athletes from the previous RTP count. For the year 2022, the Nada had identified a total of 131 athletes, who formed part of its RTP list.
For the coming year, there has been a sharp decline in the number of disabled athletes from the previous count of 16. The NADA has included 149 athletes, who will be required to comply with the whereabouts requirements of the International Standard for Testing.
The athletes have been identified based on comprehensive risk assessment across all high priority disciplines and includes sportspersons from 24 sports. If an athlete in the RTP commits three whereabouts failures (which can be a combination of filing failure and/or missed tests) in one 12-month period, this may constitute an anti-doping rule violation. The athlete may be sanctioned for a period of 12 to 24 months (first offense) or more for subsequent offenses.
All athletes in the RTP list are required to provide their whereabouts on quarterly basis, including address for overnight accommodations, activity schedules, competition schedules and a daily 60-minute time slot for each day where they will be available and accessible for testing and liable for a potential missed test.
To enable proper planning, the athletes are required to provide the details for each quarter 15 days before the beginning of the quarter. Each national sports federation will have to assist NADA in establishing a national-level RTP of top athletes.
