World 100m champion Christian Coleman will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against his ban by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for anti-doping violations, according to his manager.
Coleman is set to miss next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, after being banned for two years for missing three doping tests. As it stands, he will remain ineligible to compete until May 13, 2022.
“The decision of the Disciplinary Tribunal established under World Athletics Rules is unfortunate and will be immediately appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport,” Emanuel Hudson said.
“Mr. Coleman has nothing further to say until such time as the matter can be heard in the Court of jurisdiction.”
A whereabouts violation constitutes any combination of three missed tests or filing failures in a 12-month period, according to the World Athletics anti-doping rules. Athletes found guilty of such an offence could face a two-year ban or a minimum of one year depending on the severity of the offence.
Coleman had been provisionally suspended in June after he missed a third test in December last year.
The 24-year-old did not challenge his first missed test on January 16 2019 but disputed his filing failure on April 26 2019 and whereabouts failure on December 9, according to the AIU.
The AIU, however, clarified there was no suggestion that Coleman, who is also the indoor 60m world record holder, had ever taken any banned substance.
A statement by the body did describe Coleman’s behavior as “very careless at best and reckless at worst.”
“We regret to say that we do not think there is any mitigation which can fairly be relied upon to reduce the sanction from the two-year period.”
