Ethiopia must carry out extensive doping tests by November or face further action by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) and a possible ban by the IAAF, athletics officials in the country said Thursday.
Ethiopia will now attempt to test between 150 and 200 athletes, and will start as soon as next week, national athletics team doctor Ayalew Tilahun said.
“We are told that we could be banned from the IAAF if we don’t comply with the request,” Ayalew told reporters in Addis Ababa.
Results of the tests must be provided to Wada and athletics governing body the IAAF, he said.
Ethiopian Athletics Federation head Alebachew Nigussie said there was no threat of a ban from this year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in August, adding "but that doesn't also mean we need to relax".
The demand for extensive testing confirms major problems with anti-doping controls in Ethiopia, a top distance-running power, following serious recent doping scandals for athletics in Russia and Kenya.
IAAF president Sebastian Coe last month identified Ethiopia as one of five countries with an anti-doping programme in “critical care”. Kenya, Morocco, Belarus and Ukraine were also identified as problem countries by Coe.
Amid the scandals in neighbouring East African country Kenya, Ethiopia last month suspended three runners for doping and is investigating at least another three. In total, at least nine Ethiopians are currently under suspicion, with an undisclosed number being investigated by the IAAF.
Wada officials will visit Ethiopia on June 3 and Coe is also expected to visit around that time, Ayalew said.
Failure to carry out the mass testing and bring other parts of Ethiopia’s anti-doping programme up to scratch could lead to Ethiopia being declared non-compliant with Wada’s code, Ayalew said, and that could prompt the IAAF to act.
Russia was banned from international competition following a Wada-commissioned investigation found serious problems with its anti-doping controls.
Kenya has missed two deadlines to strengthen its programme and is facing being declared non-compliant with its rules by Wada at the global anti-doping body’s board meeting on May 12.
Kenya
Kenya has been handed a one-month extension to comply with the World Anti-Doping Agency code and thereby avoid any possible future sanctions, an official told Reuters on Thursday.
A source at the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) said that Wada had granted the extension to allow time for a new anti-doping Bill to go through Parliament and that formal confirmation was expected later in the day.
*Reuters
South Korea
The South Korean Olympic committee has blocked former Olympic swimming champion Park Tae-hwan from competing at this year’s games in Rio de Janeiro even though he finished serving a doping suspension in March.
The Olympic committee said Thursday it reached a decision to uphold its rules that ban athletes suspended for doping from competing with the national team for an additional three years after the end of their suspensions.
“We reached a conclusion that revising national team selection rules for a particular individual is inappropriate,” the committee said in a statement, adding that the decision is irreversible.
Park’s camp had argued that the rules, introduced by the KOC in 2014, were excessive. Team GMP, Park’s management company, said the swimmer wasn’t yet ready to comment on his future plans.
The 26-year-old Park, who won the gold medal in the 400-metre freestyle at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is coming off an 18-month ban after testing positive for testosterone in an out-of-competition doping test.
Park, who also won silver in Beijing and added two more silvers at the 2012 London Games, remains the only South Korean to win an Olympic medal in swimming.
*Associated Press
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