Kenyan, Kuwaiti, and Bahraini athletes popped for doping Wednesday and Thursday

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Racheal Mutgaa

It has been announced by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) that Kenyan marathon runner, Racheal Mutgaa, has been suspended for three years for testing positive for testosterone.

The 32-year-old has had her suspension backdated to August 3, 2021. Results starting on May 16 have been nullified. On that date, she ran her personal best of 2:22:50 in Milano, Italy. Her personal best will now be 2:23:30, which she ran in the Toronto Marathon in 2019.

Approximately 70 Kenyan athletes have been suspended due to doping or missed whereabouts tests, tampering, or Athlete Biological Passport anomolies. This is the most of any country in the world. Russia has a blanket ban on all but a select few athletes who may compete under a neutral flag.

Yousef Karam

Also suspended this week is Yousef Karam for the presence of Ibutamoren.

Karam has also been suspended for three years, however, the ban is appealable. The 28-year-old sprinter’s ineligibility starts from March 30, 2020, all results are disqualified from January 28, 2021, according to the AIU.

The Kuwaiti owns personal bests of 10.56 in the 100m, 21.67 in the 200m, and 44.84 in the 400m, which is the national record. He is the 400m Asian champion from Doha 2019. He is also a two-time national champion. The positive test puts a pall over his career.

Ibutamoren has been shown to sustain activation and increase lean body mass with no change in total fat mass or visceral fat. It is under investigation as a potential treatment for reduced levels of some hormones, for people with growth hormone deficiency,

El Hassan El Abbassi

El Hassan El Abbassi of Bahrain has been put on notice for blood doping. What is old is new again? Maybe not. Blood doping was once legal.

In 2018, El Abbassi set the national and area records during the Valencia Marathon with his run of 2:04:43, which is his best performance of all distances that he has run. He finished second in that race. The performance set off alarm bells. The 37-year-old (34 at the time) also ran a lifetime best in the half-marathon with his 59:27 performance; same year, same city.

El Abbassi finished seventh in the 2019 Doha World Athletics Championships marathon. It appears that until 2018, his bests over most distances gave him points performance ratings of 1140 to 1186. His half-marathon and marathon are worth 1216 and 1258, respectively.

Valencia results, top-8