National Sports Federations (NSFs) have also been advised to ensure timely submission of accurate whereabouts by their athletes to avoid ‘whereabouts failures’.

NADA issued this notice after many athletes failed to file their whereabouts in stipulated time. As per its Anti-Doping Rules - Article 5.5, some athletes, who are part of a Registered Testing Pool (RTP), are required to provide mandatory whereabouts information in the online portal/App. This information is used to locate athletes for effective out of competition doping control.

RTP athletes are required to provide the whereabouts information on a quarterly basis which includes: Home address, email address and phone number, an address for overnight accommodations, Competition schedules and locations and a 60-minute time slot for each day where they’ll be available and accessible for testing and liable for a potential ‘missed test’.

Any combination of three Whereabouts Failures (filing failures and/or missed tests) within a 12-month period constitute an Anti-Doping Rule Violation under Anti-Doping Rules - Article 2.4, which may lead to imposition of sanction up to 4 years.

Recently, one athlete was suspended for one year by the Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel due to reporting of ‘whereabouts failure.