American Stevens Gets 18-month Ban Over 'whereabouts' Failure

American sprinter Deajah Stevens, an Olympic 200m finalist, has been banned for 18 months after violating anti-doping rules, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced on Thursday

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Jul, 2020 ) :American sprinter Deajah Stevens, an Olympic 200m finalist, has been banned for 18 months after violating anti-doping rules, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced on Thursday.

Stevens, who finished seventh in the 200m in Rio in 2016 and fifth in the London world championships a year later, was found guilty of not meeting 'whereabouts' criteria.

The AIU, World Athletics' anti-doping arm set up in 2017, said Stevens' ban was backdated to February 17, meaning the 25-year-old will likely miss the rescheduled July 23-August 8, 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

Stevens can appeal.

Elite athletes are required to tell the AIU their whereabouts 90 days in advance so they can be subjected to out-of-competition doping tests.

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