NADA's Registered Testing Pool for 2023 Will Have 149 Athletes; Up from 131 in 2022

The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) on Wednesday announced that 149 athletes from 24 sport disciplines will be included in the Registered Testing Pool (RTP) for the coming year, a slight increase from the number in 2022.

NADA’s RTP list for 2023 will also have seven “athletes with disabilities” and their names will be available on its website from January 1.

“With 60 female and 89 male athletes, NADA India’s RTP list 2023, with a total of 149 athletes, is based on a comprehensive risk assessment across all high priority sports disciplines and includes athletes from 24 sport disciplines. 7 Athletes with Disabilities have been included in the list,” a PIB release said on Wednesday.

“Notice of inclusion in the RTP list has been issued to all concerned athletes with a copy to the national and international sports federation.”

NADA’s 2022 RTP list had 131 athletes with 47 from track and field.

All the athletes in the RTP list will be required to provide their whereabouts on quarterly basis, including address for overnight accommodations, activity schedules, competition schedules and locations and a daily 60-minute time slot, 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, the release said.

“An athlete is liable to provide the whereabouts information timely, failing which a notice of whereabouts filing failure will be issued to the athlete,” it stated.

“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 ineligibility of 12 to 24 months (first offense) or more for subsequent offenses.”

NADA said it is also making efforts to orient the athletes about the whereabouts filing process on the WADA ADAMS platform or Athlete Central Application.