Hima Das Set For Retun After NADA Panel's Go-ahead Following Suspension

Star India sprinter Hima Das will return to action at the Indian Grand Prix 1 on Tuesday in Bengaluru after a disciplinary panel of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) gave the green signal to her following a hearing last month, according to sources. The 24-year-old Hima was last year provisionally suspended by the NADA for three whereabout failures in 12 months. Her name figured in the women's 200m race entry list for the IGP 1 on April 30, prepared by the Athletics Federation of India.

"She was set free in a hearing by the NADA Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel last month," an Indian athletics team source told PTI on conditions of anonymity. The source did not elaborate about how the NADA disciplinary panel cleared her to compete again.

Hima had won a 400m individual silver at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games. She was also a part of the gold and silver-winning women's 4x400m and mixed 4x400m relay quartets in Jakarta.

The runner from Assam was not named in the Hangzhou Asian Games team last year due to an injury she had sustained earlier this year.

She last ran a race -- a 200m -- during the Indian Grand Prix in Bengaluru in April last year, where she won a gold with a time of 23.77 seconds. After that, she missed the whole of 2023 season.

In September last year, it had come to light that Hima committed three whereabout failures in a one-year period and she was provisionally suspended by the NADA.

At that time also, there was no clarity on whether Hima's whereabouts failure related to filing or missed test.

She had faced a maximum two-year ban if proven guilty, which can be reduced to a minimum of one year depending on the degree of her fault.

Under the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules, any combination of three