AIU playing tough in war on doping

The case of CJ Ujah is the latest high-profile example of how the Athletics Integrity Unit is fastening its iron-clad grip on doping in track and field. Since the independent body was set up by World Athletics in 2017, the AIU has prosecuted 251 athletes for doping. Of that number, nearly a quarter (60) have been Olympic or world medallists. They are alarming statistics.

They include Christian Coleman, the world 100metres champion who was hit with a two-year suspension last October. He is arguably the most notorious example of how not to mess with the AIU and its aggressive whereabouts ruling.

Three missed tests in the space of 12 months rouses enough suspicion to equate to doping, even if an athlete has never produced a positive test.

Coleman is one of 19 athletes to have been prosecuted in this way, and the AIU has shown it will not back away from controversial circumstances.

Take the case of Brianna Rollinsmcneal, the 2016 Rio 100m hurdles champion, who was last month banned for five years after being found guilty of “tampering within the results management process”. The American has appealed against the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport on the grounds that she was experiencing mental health struggles when anti-doping officials called in January 2020 while she was recovering from an abortion.

It remains to be seen whether the AIU, which was funded with some $8 million in a Covid-hit year, will have a bigger pot of money to play with over the Paris Olympiad. “We hope that the athletics community can see the return on investment from the AIU’S work,” the body told Telegraph Sport.

What is certain, though, is that it will leave no stone unturned in its quest to root out future cheats. Wilson Kipsang, the two-time London Marathon winner who is currently serving a four-year ban, was found out to have used a fake photograph of an overturned lorry to justify a missed test, while shopping receipts were scrutinised in order to get to the bottom of Coleman’s whereabouts on the night of a missed test.

In a sign of the AIU’S no-nonsense approach, it banned 20 athletes on the eve of the Games – half of whom were Nigerian – on the basis they had not been tested enough.

Ujah, Britain’s reigning 100m champion, is yet to respond to the allegations made against him and remains innocent until proven guilty. That they have surfaced at a time when the most sophisticated body in world athletics is taking no prisoners, is somewhat unnerving.