Quai Antoine: The 400-metre World champion Salwa Eid Naser has been provisionally suspended for registering four "whereabouts failures", said the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) on Sunday.
The Bahrain athlete, who won a gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in Doha last year, pleaded her innocence despite being suspended by the AIU on Friday for failing to make herself available for anti-doping tests.
In an Instagram video, Naser had said she had "only missed three drug tests" and that the missed tests came before the September event in Doha.
"The investigation into Naser's three whereabouts failures in 2019 was ongoing at the time of the Doha World Championships and she was not provisionally suspended at that time. Following the conclusion of the investigation and a fourth whereabouts failure in January 2020, a Notice of Charge was issued and Naser subject to an immediate provisional suspension," the AIU said in a statement.
The AIU stated that it will not comment further on this matter at this stage as the disciplinary process is on-going.
According to World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules, any combination of three whereabouts failures -- filing failures or missed tests -- within a 12-month period by an athlete constitutes an anti-doping violation.
Athletes guilty of whereabouts failures could face two-year bans or a minimum of one year depending on the degree of fault.
