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≡ KNIGHTON AND WELTEJI BANNED ≡
Two major doping decisions came down on Friday, just ahead of the opening of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo (JPN), one knocking out a potential medal winner.
That would be Ethiopian 1,500 m star Diribe Welteji, 23, the 2023 women’s World Road Mile champion and World women’s 1,500 m runner-up, who stands no. 3 in the world in 2025 in the 1,500, at 3:51.44:
“The Athletics Integrity Unit’s (AIU) application for provisional measures has been upheld by the CAS Division President and Ethiopian athlete, Diribe Welteji, has been suspended, pending the outcome of the AIU’s appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
“As a result, Welteji is not eligible to compete at the World Athletics Championships starting in Tokyo tomorrow, in which she was entered in the women’s 800 metres and 1500 metres events.
“The AIU appealed to CAS following the decision of a national hearing panel of the Ethiopian Anti-Doping Authority to clear Welteji of an Anti-Doping Rule Violation for a breach of article 2.3 of the Ethiopian National Anti-Doping Office Rules (Refusal or Failure to submit to Sample Collection).”
The Ethiopian decision to clear Welteji came on 27 August; the AIU received the file on 1 September and filed its motion to challenge on 10 September.
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The Court of Arbitration for Sport banned 21-year-old U.S. sprint star Erriyon Knighton for four years in a reversal of his arbitration win in the U.S.:
“The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has upheld two appeals by the Athletics Integrity Unit and by the World Anti-Doping Agency against USA athlete, Erriyon Knighton, following an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV).
“Knighton has been banned for 4 years, starting from today, with credit for the provisional suspension he served between 12 April and 19 June 2024.
“The AIU appealed against the First Instance Decision of an arbitral tribunal in the USA that found that Knighton had established No Fault or Negligence for his ADRV after testing positive for a metabolite of the steroid, trenbolone in March 2024.
“Knighton had blamed his positive test on eating contaminated meat.
“As a result of the CAS decision, Knighton is not eligible to compete at the World Athletics Championships starting in Tokyo tomorrow. He was entered in the men’s 200 metres and as a member of the USA relay squad.”
Knighton’s ban is from 12 September 2025, less his provisional suspension from 12 April 2024 to 19 June 2024, so he will be out until mid-2029 and miss the 2028 Olympic Games, unless an appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal is successful.
Despite being a back-up entry for the 2025 Worlds, he was not included on the USA Track & Field team roster for Tokyo, given his fifth-place finish at the USATF National Championships. He would only have been eligible to run in relays, but was not selected.
Knighton’s doping positive was from a 26 March 2024 sample, for epitrenbolone, a metabolite of the anabolic steroid trenbolone and was provisionally suspended as of 12 April 2024.
At a hearing on 14 and 16 June 2024, the United States Anti-Doping Agency asked for a four-year suspension; Knighton’s team asked for a “no-fault” funding due to the epitrenbolone being ingested from meat – oxtail – eaten by Knighton on 22-23 March at a Brandon, Florida restaurant.
The oxtail meat used by the restaurant was traced to Nicaragua and tested in the U.S., which found trenbolone to be present. The arbitrator wrote that “Respondent has provided sufficient evidence to establish there was no intentional doping. The amount in Respondent’s sample was low.”
Moreover, the arbitrator praised the evidence assembled by Knighton to show “no fault”:
“He established by uncontroverted evidence that meat imported into the United States is barely tested for trenbolone; the restaurant where the meal was purchased sources oxtail meat containing trenbolone; he tested negative three (3) weeks prior and after the March 26 test; he has no doping history; there is no evidence that the Prohibited Substance is micro-dosed; he takes no supplements other than a protein powder; his hair sample was negative; there was no deception detected in his polygraph test; and the explanation of what occurred with the meal purchase and his consumption of it was plausible.”
And so the arbitrator issued a 39-page decision on 18 June 2024 of a “no fault” finding, allowing Knighton to compete at the U.S. Olympic Trials. The Court of Arbitration for Sport came to the opposite conclusion:
“After considering the scientific evidence, the CAS Panel determined that there is no proof that would support the conclusion that oxtail imported into the USA would be likely to contain trenbolone residues at the level required to have caused the Athlete’s Adverse Analytical Finding.”
This is a real tragedy for a talented sprinter with his whole career ahead of him. He was the Worlds 200 m bronze winner in 2022 and silver winner in 2023 and fourth at the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
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The AIU also posted a notice concerning long jump world-record holder Mike Powell of the U.S., now 61, the 1991 and 1993 World Champion and 1988 and 1992 Olympic silver medalist:
“The Case Management Group (CMG) of World Athletics has suspended Mike Powell (USA) indefinitely for a Safeguarding Concern, following a referral by the AIU” with sanctions:
“Suspension from World Athletics-sanctioned activities and activities in athletics including no accreditation or credentials at World Athletics Series Events or any competitions or events organised or sanctioned by World Athletics, or any Area Association or Member Federation and no attendance (whether by invitation or otherwise) at any hospitality or other private access venue at, or in connection with, any World Athletics Series Events.”
The “safeguarding” issue was not specified and is appealable.
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