Indian compound archer Prathamesh Jawkar has agreed to a two-year suspension for three whereabouts failures.Prathamesh will now serve the suspension from April 19, and can return to active competition only after April 18, 2028. “I consulted a few lawyers and I was briefed that I should admit my fault as this was the easiest way forward for me. I signed my consent yesterday,” said the archer, who was part of the trio — including Ojas Pravin Deotale and Abhishek Verma — that won the compound team gold at the 2023 Asian Games.International Testing Agency (ITA) had served him a notice of charge for failing to file his whereabouts three times in the last 12 months. He has been served a notice under Article 2.4 of the anti-doping rules for a whereabouts filing violation, which requires athletes to file their whereabouts for out-of-competition testing.Prathamesh had missed filing his whereabouts in January, July and October last year. “I was late both in January and October, when I had turned off all the notifications on my phone. I had replied to the second failure that I was not sure about my whereabouts in July because we had to travel to Italy and there was a delay in the issuance of visas. Obviously, they did not agree with my explanation,” Prathamesh said, explaining his side of the story.Athletes who are part of the registered testing pool (RTP) have to routinely update their whereabouts in Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS), where they must submit their whereabouts information with specific dates and times for the next three months. If the whereabouts change, the athlete has to update the information on ADAMS.What next?The talented archer, who had a stellar 2023 season, winning two gold medals — individual at 2023 Shanghai World Cup and team in Paris the same year — and a team bronze medal at 2023 Medellin World Cup, said this suspension will make him stronger.“What has happened has happened now. I will not stop practising and I will not lose hope,” he said.