Indian Athlete Tulika Maan Provisionally Suspended By NADA, Set To Miss CWG 2026: Report

Birmingham Commonwealth Games silver-medallist judoka Tulika Maan has been withdrawn from the ongoing Glasgow edition after being handed a provisional suspension by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) for three whereabouts failures in the last 12 months.

Maan had won silver in the +78kg category in the 2022 edition and she was a strong medal prospect in Glasgow as well.

"She has committed three whereabouts failures in a 12-month period and NADA has sent notice to her. So, she will be withdrawn from the team," a judo coach told PTI on conditions of anonymity. On Thursday, another judoka, Arun Kumar (-73kg) was withdrawn for failing an out-of-competition dope test.

The Indian judo team has not yet left for the Games as its competition schedule will kick off on July 31. The judokas are scheduled to depart on July 27.

Tulika is the second judoka to fall victim to anti-doping rule violations, following Arun Kumar. Arun, who was preparing for the Games in Paris, France, underwent testing twice in Bellary, Karnataka – the first test on June 8 and the second on July 3. Both samples revealed the presence of the anabolic steroids mestanolone and stanozolol.

It has been claimed that Tulika failed to report her whereabouts three times in the Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS) over the past year.

Athletes in the registered testing pool (RTP) are required to regularly update their location details in the system, providing information about where they will be at specific dates and times for the upcoming three months. If there are any changes to their whereabouts, the athlete must promptly update this information in ADAMS.

If an athlete has three whereabouts failures, which include not filing their whereabouts correctly and missing tests within a year, it counts as an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) according to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code. Typically, this leads to a maximum suspension of two years as stated in article 2.4 of the anti-doping rules violation.

What Next For Tulika?

Tulika is presented with two alternatives. She can either contest the charge or accept her suspension. The president of the Judo Federation of India (JFI) has confirmed this situation and indicated that the federation will probably have to withdraw her from participating in the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

“She has been issued a notice for three whereabouts failures. She is trying to get this sorted but as we know it will be very difficult to send her under these circumstances. We will have to withdraw her from the Games,” Judo Federation of India President Mukesh Kumar was quoted in The Tribune.