Naser cleared, Miller-Uibo hits out
PARIS • Women’s 400m Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo on Wednesday criticised World Athletics (WA) after the doping suspension of her rival Salwa Eid Naser was overturned.
Naser, 22, was provisionally suspended in June and charged with failing to meet “whereabouts” criteria, but the decision was overturned on Tuesday by WA’s disciplinary tribunal.
A tester had knocked on the wrong door, the report said, adding that the circumstances surrounding one missed test “would have been comical were the consequences not so serious”.
Bahrain’s Naser beat Miller-Uibo in last year’s world championships by clocking 48.14 seconds, the third-fastest time in history. The Bahamian had to settle for her second world championship silver and in a post on Instagram, she lashed out at the decision to allow her rival to run.
The world championships were held in Doha, Qatar from September to October. But between January and April of last year, Naser had thrice failed to fulfil her whereabouts obligations, according to WA. Although the last of those failures was deemed not her fault by the tribunal, Miller-Uibo, 26, questioned the lack of accountability.
“Why was no action taken?” she said on Instagram. “Why was the athlete not provisionally suspended until one year and two months later? I cry foul play and believe there is a deeper explanation of how World Athletics… allowed this to carry on.
“We need to ensure that in athletics, we the athletes are not competing against any administrators, whose only goal is for athletes to run faster, jump further and throw further at any cost.”
She later stated her belief that the World Anti-Doping Agency would appeal the verdict to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
A statement released by WA said: “We understand that the time this process takes can be frustrating, but the system must be independent, robust and thorough in order to maintain integrity.”
In response to Miller-Uibo’s queries, the Athletics Integrity Unit said: “The power to impose a provisional suspension in whereabouts cases only arises under the World Athletics rules once a charge is issued. Whereabouts cases often involve complex factual scenarios that require investigation. Cases are generally not concluded soon after the date of the third whereabouts failure, but often will only be finalised months later.”
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE