The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed the appeal of Ahmed Abdelwahed from Italy against a 4-year doping ban, according to the Athletics Integrity Unit’s X account.
Abdelwahed tested positive for the banned substance Meldonium, also known as Mildronate, THP, MET-88, Mildronāts, or Quaterine.
The 29-year-old owns a best in the 3000m steeplechase of 8:10.26, which was run in June 2022. He seemed to be a perpetual 8:30-8:50 runner until he produced a noticeable jump in performance in 2021 to 8:12.04. In August 2022, he picked up a silver medal during the Munich European Athletics Championships with an 8:22.35 performance. The race was won by Topi Raitanen of Finland in a time of 8:21.80. Taking bronze was fellow Italian Osama Zoghlami.
On March 22, 2023, the AIU issued him a Notice of Charge for committing Anti-Doping Rule Violations.
Sports Resolutions published the following paragraph in the case of World Athletics vs Ahmed Abdelwahed, “The Disciplinary Tribunal, comprising of Ms Joëlle Monlouis (Chair), Mr Eduardo Amorim, and Mr Tom Murray, stated that the controversy was not whether the Athlete committed the ADRVs, but whether the Athlete, who bore the burden of proof, had established that the presence of Meldonium was due to the biotransformation process of a supplement taken (Mythoxan Forte). The Athlete argued that he did not take Meldonium intentionally, and stated that the Mythoxan Forte supplement ingested was the cause of the Adverse Analytical Finding via a biotransformation process demonstrated by his expert witnesses. The AIU denied the biotransformation theory due to being nonspecific and highly unlikely.”
