The Spanish Mohamed Katir, world runner-up in the 5,000 meters, announced this Wednesday in a statement his “provisional suspension” by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for “a violation of the rules derived from three location errors in the last twelve months”.
These failures refer to three occasions in which Katir could not be located to undergo an anti-doping test. The athlete attributes them to errors when completing the data for location on the platform created for this purpose, ADAMS.
Given the announcement made by Katir, the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA) has immediately proceeded to suspend the athlete’s license. In the organization’s statement, the RFEA “reaffirms its firm and forceful position against doping in sport” and emphasizes that the integrity of the competition “must be defended above any sporting achievement.”
Katir assures in his writing that “during the processing of the disciplinary procedure” the AIU agreed to his provisional suspension. “Since I do not agree with the aforementioned decision adopted, I am prepared to appeal it to the corresponding authorities to be able to compete during the processing of the procedure.”
“I consider that there is no infringement resulting from three location failures in the last twelve months. In some of the location failures reported by AIU, I was available at the place, date and time provided by me,” he assures.
“During the last few months and years I have been subjected to a large number of out-of-competition doping controls, both in urine and blood samples, without the slightest problem having arisen on my part,” confesses the Spanish athlete, who underlines that this decision “is not a record of violation of doping rules for the use of prohibited substances or methods, not even for evading out-of-competition doping controls.”
“This is a simple file derived from the completion of location data on the ADAMS platform that could generate location errors (whereabouts),” he points out.
Katir reports that he will proceed to defend himself in the “appropriate instances, as it cannot be otherwise.” “For this reason, I request that the right to the presumption of my innocence be respected until the corresponding procedure is processed and concluded,” he concludes.
This provisional suspension of Mohamed Katir comes a day after his resignation from the Spanish Indoor Championships in Ourense and the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow was confirmed to focus on the outdoor season with the Summer Olympic Games as the main objective.
The athlete has been in Valencia since Tuesday and this afternoon he was scheduled to participate in the Valencia 2024 International Athletics Grand Prix, where he would try to beat the European record of 5,000 meters in short track. Similarly, he also wanted to compete on Saturday in the 2,000 meters in Lievin (France), a week after stroking the Spanish record in the 1,500 in L’Eure.
