Reigning Paralympic gold medallist and current world champion Pramod Bhagat blames a technical glitch for his 18-month suspension after being found in breach of Badminton World Federation’s anti-doping regulations for having three whereabouts failures within 12 months.
Bhagat, champion in SL3 category, had appealed against BWF’s March 1, 2024 decision to the CAS Appeals Division. “On 29 July 2024, the CAS Appeals Division dismissed Bhagat’s appeal and confirmed the CAS Anti-Doping Division decision of 1 March 2024,” a BWF statement said on Tuesday.
Bhagat called it an “unfair and hard decision,” adding, “it is not right.” The 36-year-old was a strong contender for the gold medal at the Paralympics, having beaten Great Britain’s Daniel Bethell at the World Championships earlier this year.
The events leading up to the third whereabouts breach have been bone of contention with the Badminton World Federation since January 3, 2023. “At CAS, the BWF argued that Pramod Bhagat was a very big and great athlete. In their opinion, being a big athlete comes with big responsibility. So the third breach, even if debatable, could not be exonerated,” Bhagat told The Indian Express.
Bhagat’s first whereabouts breach dates back to a tournament in Peru. “I was playing a tournament at that time, and an OTP issue cropped up. I will have to accept that though a few younger para-athletes have also faced a similar situation when the App goes for maintenance. That was bad timing, but BWF argued that the others were not big athletes like me from the testing pool, so they could be excused,” he recalled.
The 36-year-old was a strong contender for the gold medal at the Paralympics, having beaten Great Britain’s Daniel Bethell at the World Championships earlier this year. (BWF Badminton)
The second whereabouts failure, according to Bhagat, took place in August 2022. “I had just returned from winning a title. The Bihar government, which was newly elected, wanted to felicitate me, but the invite came at the last minute and I had to rush at short notice. My parents belong to Bihar so I couldn’t have missed that. So, again, I wasn’t at the place I’d entered in the form. And I accept my mistake, but I was being felicitated,” Bhagat reasoned.
‘Filing failure’
It is the third incident that felled India’s most consistent champion at the highest competition level, who was a string name for gold at Paris. “I had filled the quarterly form on 1 January, 2023 giving all details till March. We also put screenshots on group, to get it checked if everything is OK. I had submitted and it showed green, so I believed everything was done. On 3 January, BWF contacted me that there had been a ‘filing failure.’ They said, maybe I could see it in my Drafts, but they couldn’t on their end. I rechecked, but that’s when debate between BWF and me started and they filed a case,” he maintains.
“It was a technical issue and I couldn’t do anything from my side. Why will I not fill (the form)? I’ve been tested at least 10 times last season, including three times in one month,” Bhagat said.
The shuttler from Vaishali won the Para World Championship, beating Brit Bethell, and the Asian Para Games during the period in question. “But they hadn’t declared me guilty then. So I played and won. At the appeal, they said they can’t ignore that I’m a big player, hence the punishment. There is no equality in this judgment, and I keep repeating that it was a technical issue. But no one listens, and if I miss the Paralympics, that opportunity will never come back. I’m waiting for a detailed explanation now, but there’s just one week left,” Bhagat said.
“I’m shocked. But nothing can be done now. I got green dots, but they say they didn’t receive the form,” he added.
