Two years of sanctions for Mo Katir for missing three anti-doping tests | Kinds of sports

Mo Katir is as fast on the slopes as his lawyer Borja Oses is in the anti-doping offices. Just nine days after the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), the department responsible for anti-doping activities in the International Federation (WA), announced his provisional suspension for three anti-doping control site violations, the top Spanish athlete accepted a two-year sanction . Kathir is the best athlete in the world at a distance of 5000 m according to Athletics News, silver medalist at the World Championships in Budapest behind Jakob Ingebrigtsen and national record holder in the 1500, 3000 and 5000 metres, he was keen to speed up the timing of his process in order to fulfill his sanction as quickly as possible.

The athlete, a 1500m bronze medalist at the 2022 Oregon World Championships, will be eligible to return to competition on February 7, 2026 at age 27. In his absence, the European Championships (Rome, June 2024), the Olympic Games and the World Championships (Tokyo 2025) will be held.

“On Tuesday this week (February 13, 2024), a 25-year-old middle-distance runner returned a signed form admitting an anti-doping rule violation and accepting the consequences, admitting a violation of Rule 2.4 (Location Violations by an Athlete in a Subject to Control Pool ) World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules (ADR),” the AIU said in a statement. “Katir admitted that in the 12 months commencing on February 28, 2023, he committed three location failures, namely: a registration failure on February 28, 2023; relinquishment of control and registration on April 3, 2023; and failure to control and register on October 10, 2023. Your two-year period of ineligibility will begin on the date of your suspension and will therefore last from February 7, 2024 to February 6, 2024. February 2026. All results and related awards from October 10, 2023 disqualified for years.”

In his statement, Kathir admits that he is so absent-minded that, just as he sometimes leaves his spikes at the hotel and has to borrow them from other athletes to participate in rallies, he also sometimes forgets to update his ADAMS, the World Anti-Doping Platform agency (WADA), which includes the world’s best athletes included in pool control by International Federations, they must indicate quarterly where they will be located each day for at least the time they wish to be subject to out-of-competition control. If there are changes in plans or unforeseen travel, athletes can update their details through the ADAMS app or, if it is not working, via email.

A surprise trip to Lisbon to be with his sick girlfriend on February 28, two weeks after the European 3000m record (7 minutes 24.68 seconds) was broken in France; a technical failure of the ADAMS system on April 3, while he was undergoing training in Font-Rome, and the dispatcher who went to his home in Mula, Murcia, the place indicated in his location, found himself alone with his father, as in February, and confusion between eight morning and eight o’clock in the afternoon on October 10th was the reason given by the AIU to justify its mistakes. None of them convinced the agency: the extraordinary plane ticket to Lisbon was taken out not on February 28 at 8:30 in the morning, as he explained, but two days before that. The ADAMS application did not go down every day of his stay in Font Rome, but at the same moment, at 20:30 on October 10, when the dispatcher was waiting for him in Mule with his father on October 10, while he trained in Fuente Alamo. , he changed the control time that day to leave it at 8 am.

Kathir’s admission strategy was determined by the difficulties faced by his lawyer in getting the charges dropped, as well as by a warning from the Spanish Athletics Federation, which, having revoked his license after the AIU announced a provisional suspension, reminded him that no athlete with open doping the file cannot be selected, even with a preventive suspension of the temporary sanction. Taking this into account, Kathir, his lawyer and his agent concluded that initially opposing AY with appeals would be nothing more than a waste of time and money. As deadlines pass, athletes’ stress and anxiety will increase, and their desire to return to competition as soon as possible will be frustrated.

On December 12, the AIU informed Kathir of the three unsuccessful locations and offered him a two-week period to provide further explanations. On December 26, without hearing from the athlete, the AIU began the suspension process, leading to his final two-year sanction.

“I am forced to accept the sanction proposed by the AIU and thus be able to start complying with it as soon as possible and thus be able to return as soon as possible and not drag it out in time,” admits Kathir in his statement. a statement in which he also asks “sorry” to all the people and sponsors who supported him in a career that began as an uncontrollable explosion in the summer of 2021, when in just 33 days (between June 10 and July 13) in three Diamond Rally Leagues he beat three national records with world class marks: 5000m (12m 50.79s), 1500m (3m 28.76s) and 3000m (7m 27.64s). “And if in all this I serve as an example for the rest of my colleagues who are aware of the importance of wearing location (ADAMS location) per day, I’ll be happy.”

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