Olympic-bound boxer Parveen banned for whereabouts failure; India to field ‘reserve’ at World qualifiers to regain women’s 57kg spot

NEW DELHI: In the wake of Olympics-bound boxer and Parveen Hooda’s suspension by the International Testing Agency (ITA) for whereabouts failure, India has decided to fight afresh for the women’s 57kg category quota place for the Paris Games by fielding a reserve pugilist at the upcoming World qualifiers in Bangkok.
For now, Indian boxing is without representation in the women’s 57kg class at the Games after the imposition of ban on the World championships bronze medallist.Parveen failed to file her whereabouts in the period between April 2022 and March 2023 as per the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) rules.
According to Wada rules, “any combination of three whereabouts failures (filing failure and/or missed test) within a period of 12 months constitute an anti-doping rule violation, for which the applicable sanction is 2 years of ineligibility subject to a reduction to a minimum of 1 year depending on your degree of fault”.
Parveen, who had won a quota for Paris by winning the bronze medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, has been suspended for 22 months by the ITA, which is tasked by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to carry out the anti-doping programme for the Paris Games.
Boxing Federation of India (BFI) on Friday informed that pursuant to multiple discussions and representations, the ITA has proposed a sanction on Parveen, entailing the imposition of an ineligibility period of 22 months. However, the ban period has now been backdated by eight months as compared to the initial suspension period of 24 months. In essence, the total sanction period will be of 14 months, starting from May 17, 2024.
Still, it would be difficult for Indian boxing to secure a Paris quota place in the women’s 57kg class at the Bangkok qualifiers – the second and last qualification event – scheduled from May 25 to June 2. India can only field a boxer who is already registered as reserve for the qualifiers before April 11, 2024, which means that only two boxers – named as reserved in 60kg and 66 kg category – will be eligible to compete in Bangkok.
It’s been learnt that Jasmine Lamboria, who lost in the quarters of the women’s 60kg division at the women’s World boxing championships in 2022, has been asked by the BFI to prepare herself for competing in the 57kg weight class. But to drop down from her original weight division and get ready to face a highly-competitive field in Bangkok at such a short notice won’t be an easy task for Jasmine.
Shedding more light on the case, BFI informed that Parveen’s legal representatives, comprising prominent sports lawyer Vidushpat Singhania, along with federation officials led by Colonel Arun Malik, had concerted talks with the Wada’s Anti-Doping Ombuds as well as the ITA “to safeguard the Olympic quota and Praveen against potential suspension”.
“The failure arose on account of Parveen lacking the ability and technical know-how required for operating the Anti-Doping Administration & Management System (ADAMS) platform, owing to which a gap arose in her being able to fill her whereabouts information accurately and consistently. Parveen’s failure to comply in the present instance arose solely on account of her lack of knowledge and technical understanding of the ADAMS platform,” Singhania said.
BFI’s secretary general Hemanta Kalita, on his part, stated that “our proactive outreach to ITA and WADA emphasised the unintentional nature of the boxer’s actions, particularly given her father’s terminal illness”.
Currently, only three Indian boxers -- Nikhat Zareen (50kg), Preeti (54kg) and Lovlina Borgohain (75kg) – have the quota places.