MADRID, 16 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish athlete Mohamed Katir has been sanctioned this Friday with two years without competing by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for three location failures between February and October 2023 to pass anti-doping controls in the last twelve months, as confirmed by the agency.
The sanction for the current 5,000 meters world runner-up, who admitted his guilt, will begin to count from February 7, when he was provisionally punished by the AIU, until February 6, 2026, so he will lose both the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and the European Games in Rome, which will be held in June. In addition, all of his results since last October 10 are annulled.
As detailed by the AIU, the Spanish long-distance runner failed to be present at controls on February 28, 2023, April 3, 2023 and October 10, 2023. In the first absence, the agency indicated that his father reported that the athlete was not there “because he had traveled to Portugal.” After calling Katir, he confirmed his location in Lisbon “for a few days and that he would return to Spain on March 2.”
That day, the AIU notified him of his non-compliance and requested his explanations, which the Spaniard presented on March 9, stating that “he had been present at the home during his 60-minute time slot (07:00-08:00)” on that 28th. February and that shortly after he received a call “from his fiancee asking him to visit her because she was not feeling well” so he traveled to Lisbon and “updated” his location the next day.
The unit also emphasizes that on March 29, “after repeated requests on the 22nd and 28th,” Katir provided a copy of the confirmation of his flight to Portugal on February 28, which indicated that the reservation had been made on the 26th. February and not when the Spanish athlete had said, which led to him receiving his first breach because “he had not updated his whereabouts as soon as his circumstances changed and that his accommodation for the night on February 28, 2023 was materially inaccurate” .
Katir did not appeal this first warning and the second ruling came days later when the staff went to where the distance runner had told them he would be, meeting again with the athlete’s father who then reported that he was not there because “he was training in France.” .
Mula’s also confirmed it and the AIU confirmed a new failure, and although Katir claimed that he had “tried to update his whereabouts” he encountered a failure in the application, “so he sent an email to ADAMS to facilitate his address for the following weeks” and that he tried to update it on March 30 and 31, and April 1 and 2, but the failure continued.
These explanations did not prevent a second notice since athletes can “exceptionally send an update to their whereabouts information” by email and Katir would have received “an automatic response from ADAMS indicating that he should write to the AIU with any update on his whereabouts,” but “he didn’t do it.”
Katir did not present any further explanations in this regard to reverse this decision and on December 21, after the confirmation of a third location failure, he did request a review through his legal representatives, which was studied “exceptionally”, but finally rejected.
On October 10, the last location failure occurred, after the staff returned to “the specified address” and at the specified time slot. In this case, Katir’s father reported that his son “was training about 30 minutes away” and that he “had tried to contact the athlete by phone.”
Katir explained that he “was surprised” by the time interval that was indicated because it is the one in which he “normally” trained and attributed it to a “system error”, ensuring that he had set it “between 7:00 and 8:00”, attaching “two screenshots” to confirm it.
The AIU reviewed the records of the ADAMS system provided by the AMA and noted that on September 29, the Murcian “had updated his whereabouts, including the change of his 60-minute time slot between 7:20 p.m. and 8:20 p.m. at his home for the period covered between October 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023” and that on the same October 10, 2023, at 10:47 p.m., “it had changed its 60-minute time slot for that day from 7:20-8:20 p.m. to 7:00-8:00 a.m.” .
This led to his third location failure in 12 months being confirmed on December 12, which became official since the Spaniard did not present any allegations. After officially communicating the provisional sanction on February 7, on the 13th he received from Katir that he admitted having committed the infraction and that he accepted the consequences, for which he “expressly” waived his right to appeal.
In this sense, it must be remembered that Katir himself had indicated after learning of his suspension that he would appeal it because he considered that he was “available” at that time and that it has nothing to do with any doping violation. “In some of the location failures reported by the AIU, I was available at the place, date and time provided by me,” he indicated at the time.
