Hima Das cleared of all doping charges by NADA’s appeal panel

Hyderabad: Indian athlete Hima Das has received an all-clear from the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) and has now been cleared of any wrong-doing and cleared doping charges after the athlete had accumulated three whereabouts failures in 12 months.

Hima Das was provisionally suspended by the NADA after three whereabouts failures in the last one year but the athlete was cleared by the Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (ADDP). She then returned to action in the Indian Grand Prix 1 in Bengaluru in April this year.

After an appeal, the Anti-Doping Appeal Panel (ADAP) upheld the ADDP’s decision, in a judgement that was passed this month.

The NADA website stated: “The ADDP order is upheld. Athlete exonerated from doping charges.”

The 24-year-old Hima Das, is one of the fastest sprinters in India, and the athlete won the silver medal in the 400m category at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games.

She added a team gold and a silver medal in the women’s 4x400m and mixed 4x400m relay in the same competition.

However, persistent injuries meant the Assam-born runner couldn’t compete in the next edition of the Asian Games in Hangzhou in 2023. She also missed the Federation Cup, the National Inter-State Championships – the qualifying events for the Asian Games – due to injuries.

Soon after the Asian Games miss, Hima Das was provisionally suspended by the NADA for whereabouts failures. Athletes have to inform the testing agency of their whereabouts including the full address of their location, their regular activity schedule and time-frame for every activity they take part in.

The doping agency can then take any out-of-competition test on the athlete based on the information given.

In Hima’s case, it is unclear if the athlete had missed a test or missed giving information on her whereabouts that led to the ban.