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The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has been busy as of late especially on December 14, where at least three more athletes have been suspended for doping. The notices of positive tests and suspension is likely to ramp up in accordance with the Rio 2016 stored samples, coming to the end of the eight-year shelf life and state of limitations.

Today, one each from Morocco, Colombia, Bolivia and Italy, by way of Egypt have been suspended.

Samir Jouaher of Morocco

Samir Jouaher of Morocco has been suspended for six years by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for doping.

The suspension is retroactive from March 2023, while results dating back to May 2022 will be removed.

The 38-year-old set his marathon personal best in February this year at the Riyadh Marathon at 2:08:42. In May of 2022 he ran the Marrakesh Marathon in the time of 2:09:42. Both performances are well above any other results he has attained from 5K to the half-marathon.

Jouaher tested positive for the presence of EPO/CERA, the oxygen-blood booster. He was originally provisionally suspended in the spring of 2023.

Other suspensions

Vidal Basco, is also provisionally suspended, and has been handed a suspension of four years dating back to July 2023. The Ororu, Bolivia resident tested positive in an anti-doping test during the South American Games in Asunción in October 2022. After taking the prohibited substance Clenbuterol. His story is wrapped around a local pharmacist selling him a different product than what was prescribed by a physician for not feeling well with cold-related symptoms.

The 27-year-old holds four national records from 3000m steeplechase to the half-marathon distance.

Colombia’s John Tello Zuniga has been handed a three-year suspension. He tested positive for EPO. The 37-year-old owns a marathon best of 2:14:19 from 2021. Hardly worth doping over.

Ahmed Abdelwahed of Italy was served notice of his four-year suspension for the presence of meldonium. His results will be erased back to August 2022. The 27-year-old’s one outlier performance that likely turned heads was his 3000m steeplechase run in Rome, Italy last year where he clocked an 8:10.29 performance. The plastic Italian-cum-Egyptian was originally suspended in 2022, shortly after his Rome performance.

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