American sprinter Christian Coleman is free to compete at the IAAF World Championships in Doha this month after a charge relating to him missing three drug tests was dropped.
The 23-year-old world silver medallist looked in danger of receiving a one year ban until investigations were ended by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
Questions were raised because of alleged ‘filing failures’ under the ‘whereabouts’ system in which athletes must let testers know where they are for an hour every day along with details of accommodation and training.
Discussions between USADA and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) led to clarification being sought on the dates the failures occurred. The first failure is now judged to have taken place on 1st April last year, instead of 6th June.
This is more than twelve months prior to his last failure on 26th April 2019.
USADA CEO Travis T. Tygart said in a press release: ““Every athlete is entitled to a presumption of innocence until their case is concluded through the established legal process. This is certainly the case for Mr. Coleman, who has been found by USADA not to have committed a Whereabouts Violation and is fully eligible to compete under the rules.”
The 9.79 seconds 100m man is also the fastest man in the world this year with 9.81 and is perhaps the favourite to win gold in Qatar.
He is also the 60m world record holder.
