Christian Coleman, the 100m world champion, will miss this summer’s Olympic Games, despite having his ban for a doping whereabouts violation cut to 18 months.
Coleman was found guilty of the breach in October last year and subsequently hit with a backdated two-year ban, which was due to run until May 2022.
The American’s appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport has been “partially upheld”, with the body ruling that the sprinter, who won individual and relay gold at Doha 2019, had a “degree of negligence to be lower” than what was previously established as it reduced his ban so that it will now November this year.
The decision means he will still be absent for the rearranged Tokyo Games, which are due to run from July 23 to August 8, although he will be able to compete in both indoor and outdoor world championships next year.
Three whereabouts failures in a 12-month period constitutes a rule violation and Coleman contended his last breach, but CAS insisted the American should have been on “high-alert” because of two strikes against him.
Coleman went out shopping during his designated one-hour time slot in December 2019 but he is adamant the tester made no attempt to contact him.
“Had the athlete been called by the doping control officer, he would have been able to return to his apartment during the 60-minute window and a test would have been concluded,” a CAS statement said.
“Although a telephone call during the 60-minute window was not required by the rules, it was nevertheless reasonable for the athlete to expect such a call, as a matter of standard practice among other doping control officers.
“In conclusion, the CAS panel determined that an 18-month period of ineligibility was the appropriate sanction in the circumstances.”
Additional reporting by PA.
