WADA identifies 12 positive tests, 97 whereabout failures of 70 Indian athletes in report

Montreal, Jul 19 (PTI) The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has found “clear evidence” that India’s National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) is not doing its job properly, identifying 12 positive tests and 97 whereabouts failures involving 70 athletes during an investigation.

WADA’s independent Intelligence and Investigations (I&I) Department on Tuesday published a report following an investigation into allegations that elements of NADA’s testing programme were not in accordance with the WADA Code and the International Standard for Testing and Investigations (ISTI).

“WADA I&I’s long-running investigation, known as ‘Operation Carousel’, was launched in 2018, and uncovered evidence that NADA did not carry out adequate testing on some athletes in NADA’s registered testing pool (RTP) while also failing to put in place appropriate monitoring of athletes’ whereabouts information.

“The investigation monitored select sports and athletes within India and, as a result, in cooperation with NADA, 12 positive tests (Adverse Analytical Findings) and 97 whereabouts failures of 70 athletes were identified. These are now subject to results management processes as appropriate,” said the WADA report.

WADA noted that there was clear evidence NADA was lacking in resources.

“Since 2016, WADA has been working with NADA to improve its anti-doping program, providing various corrective actions to address non-conformities with the World Anti-Doping Code and International Standards,” said WADA I&I director, Gunter Younger.

“In parallel and in response to tips coming through our confidential information platform, ‘Speak Up!’, WADA I&I launched ‘Operation Carousel’, which uncovered clear evidence that NADA’s lack of resources meant it was not carrying out a sufficient level of testing and it did not have satisfactory oversight and management of whereabouts filings by athletes in the registered testing pool.”

The report though said that since ‘Operation Carousel’ was launched NADA is trying to take corrective measures and strengthen its resources.

“Since ‘Operation Carousel’ began to engage openly with NADA in late 2022, NADA has strengthened its testing program by improving internal processes and bringing in significant additional resources, both human and financial.

“As a result, both the collection of blood samples and out-of-competition testing (urine and blood) has increased. Moreover, NADA has doubled its sample collection staff, including doping control officers, and made significant improvements to its whereabouts management.”

The report added that even though NADA continues to receive help in strengthening its anti-doping programme, WADA will continue to monitor the progress.

“The organisation is receiving external assistance to develop and strengthen its anti-doping programs further, including its investigative and intelligence capabilities.

“Going forward, WADA’s Compliance Taskforce will continue to monitor the activities of NADA to ensure it upholds the high standards demanded by the Code and all related International Standards,” the report added.

In 2019, NADA was suspended by the world body for six months due to non-conformities with the international standard of laboratories (ISL).

UNDERSTAFFING AN OLD PROMBEM

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‘Operation Carousel’ had ticked off NADA for staffing issues way back in 2017, when it pointed out a “severely understaffed” national anti-doping body in its audit report.

“In 2017, still concerned by the lack of progress in India, WADA audited the NADA anti-doping program… In addition to discovering that NADA was “severely understaffed”, the audit also identified several non-conformities and resulted in WADA issuing a Corrective Action Report (CAR),” said ‘Operation Carousel’.

In 2020, WADA again issued a second CAR to NADA, identifying the non-conformities in several testing related areas.

An Operation Carousel team also visited India in October 2022 and after interviewing key NADA officials, including their Director General, found that “the supervision of whereabouts (of athletes) was inadequate, that there was a lack of sufficient testing, and that NADA did not have an effective intelligence or investigative capability.”

‘Operation Carousel’ also pointed out last year that India was also not testing all the 131 elite athletes in its reserve testing pool (RTP), which was of concern to WADA.

“Regarding the issue of sample collection, Operation Carousel advised NADA that of the 131 RTP athletes, only 103 had been tested. In other words, as of 17 November 2022, 28 athletes had not been tested at all in 2022.”