Provisional ban for two US women sprinters over whereabouts

Under World Athletics’ anti-doping rules, any combination of three whereabouts failures within a period of 12 months constitute anti-doping rule violation.

Representative image: Elite athletes are duty-bound to provide the AIU with their whereabouts 90 days in advance in case they might be subjected to an out-of-competition doping test.

Two top US women sprinters, including Olympic 200m finalist Deajah Stevens, have been provisionally suspended after failing to meet ‘whereabouts’ criteria, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced on Friday.

Stevens, 24, finished seventh in the 200m at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and fifth in the London world championships a year later, when she was US champion over the distance.

Also provisionally banned was her 23-year-old compatriot Gabrielle Thomas, a two-time winner of the 200m at the Lausanne Diamond League (2018, 2019).

Elite athletes are duty-bound to provide the AIU with their whereabouts 90 days in advance in case they might be subjected to an out-of-competition doping test.

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Under World Athletics’ anti-doping rules, any combination of three whereabouts failures (filing failure and/or missed test) within a period of 12 months constitute an anti-doping rule violation, for which the applicable sanction is two years’ ineligibility subject to a reduction to a minimum of one year depending on the athlete’s degree of fault.

The AIU, the independent anti-doping watchdog for track and field set up in 2017, also announced a provisional ban for whereabouts discrepancies for Kenya’s Alex Korio Oliotiptip, who was 11th in the 10,000m at last year’s Doha worlds.