Spanish world medallist Katir's doping rule ban doubled

Spanish world championship medallist runner Mohamed Katir has had has ban for doping rules violations doubled from two to four years because he falsified travel documents.

Katir, who won 1500m bronze in 2022 and 5000m silver in 2023, was banned in February for two years for missing three doping tests in a 12-month period, making him miss this year's Paris Olympics and the 2025 worlds in Tokyo.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said Katir will now be ineligible for another two years until February 2028 because he "was found to have falsified travel documents (namely a travel Itinerary, boarding pass and booking confirmation) in an attempt to mislead investigators" probing a whereabouts failure in February 2023.

Athletes must always make their whereabouts known to be available for out of competition tests. Three failures in 12 months leads to sanctions.

"Gone are the days in athletics when explanations offered in anti-doping cases are just accepted at face value. Thanks to strong investment in investigations, since its inception in 2017, the AIU has prosecuted 25 Tampering cases," AIU's head, Australian Brett Clothier, said.

"The vast majority of our elite athletes respect the strict rules and processes of the sport and they should take heart at the action being taken to ensure a level playing field."

The AIU also wanted Katir disqualified from all events after the February 2023 failure due to the tampering but its disciplinary tribunal said it happened "at the time of a first Whereabouts Failure and the Athlete has not benefited from a competitive advantage which affected his results".