Spain’s Mo Katir, the 2023 world championship 5000m silver medalist and 2022 world championship 1500m bronze medalist, accepted a two-year ban for missing three drug tests in a 12-month span and will miss the 2024 Olympics in Paris and the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, the Athletics Integrity Unit announced on Friday morning.

Here’s what you need to know:

– Katir was provisionally suspended on Feb. 7, 2024. He accepted his ban on Feb. 13 and is suspended through Feb. 6, 2026. He will be 27 years old when he is eligible to compete again.

– Katir was not available for out-of-competition drug test attempts on Feb. 28, April 3 and Oct. 10 in 2023 at the location that he listed for his whereabouts.

– Katir issued a statement shortly after the provisional ban that he planned to appeal. However, he admitted that he committed the violation and accepted the two-year ban.

His first missed test

– Katir had a filing failure on Feb. 28, 2023. He was in Lisbon when a doping control officer went to test him. Katir said he got a last-minute call from his fiancée because she was not feeling well. The flight confirmation showed that his travel was booked two days before he went.

From the AIU decision:

“In summary, on 28 February 2023 at 20:10, a Doping Control Officer (“DCO”) attended an address in Murcia, Spain that was indicated in the Athlete’s Whereabouts information to be his overnight accommodation for that date (the “Home Address”) and met the Athlete’s father who informed the DCO that the Athlete was not present as he had traveled to Portugal. The DCO called the Athlete who confirmed that he was indeed in Lisbon, Portugal for a few days and that he would return to Spain on 2 March 2023…

At some time after 08:30 on 28 February 2023, the Athlete received a call from his fiancée asking him to visit her because she was feeling unwell, and he immediately booked a flight to Lisbon (Portugal) and updated his Whereabouts information for the following day to reflect his stay in Portugal…

On 29 March 2023, after repeated requests from the AIU on 22 and 28 March 2023, the Athlete provided the AIU with a copy of his booking confirmation for the flight to Portugal on 28 February 2023. According to that confirmation when it was finally received, the flight to Portugal had in fact been booked on 26 February 2023 i.e., two (2) days before the Athlete’s departure, and not on the day of the attempt as the Athlete had previously explained.”

His second missed test

Katir had a missed test/filing failure on April 3, 2023. He was in France training when a doping control officer went to test him. Katir claimed that he tried to update his whereabouts on ADAMS (World Anti Doping Agency's whereabouts system) but it was not working. Athletes can email their whereabouts to the AIU if they have any technical issues. He emailed ADAMS and not the AIU – even after getting a reply from ADAMS to email the AIU.

From the AIU decision:

“In summary, on 3 April 2023, a DCO went to the Home Address where the Athlete indicated he would be for his 60-minute time slot on that date (19:50 - 20:50). The DCO arrived at the Athlete’s address at the start of the time slot and met the Athlete’s father who informed the DCO that the Athlete was not there because he was currently away training in France. The DCO called the Athlete who confirmed that he was indeed in France. The DCO remained at the Athlete’s specified location for the remainder of the specified 60-minute time slot and the Athlete did not return during this period…On 19 April 2023, the Athlete submitted his explanation to the AIU.

In summary, he explained that, on 28 March 2023, he had tried to update his Whereabouts information via ADAMS to indicate that he would be in Font Romeu, France, but “the APP and the system was not working”, so he sent an email to ADAMS to provide his address in Font Romeu for the following weeks. The Athlete also claimed that he had tried to update his Whereabouts information via “the APP” on “the 30, 31, 01, 02, but the APP still wasn’t working” and that he was only able to update (via the app) on 3 April 2023…On 28 April 2023, following a review of the Athlete’s explanation, the AIU confirmed a Whereabouts Failure effective 3 April 2023 against the Athlete.

The AIU noted that, whilst athletes who have technical issues with ADAMS may exceptionally submit an update to their whereabouts information with the AIU by e-mail to whereabouts@athleticsintegrity.org (and when doing so must provide a description and evidence of the alleged technical issues experienced)2, the Athlete had instead sent an e-mail to ADAMS. The Athlete had received an automated reply from ADAMS stating that he was to write to the AIU with any whereabouts update, but he failed to do so. The AIU therefore concluded that the Athlete had failed to update his Whereabouts information as required.”

His third missed test

– Katir had a missed test/filing failure on Oct. 10, 2023. He was training during his 60-minute time slot and was about 30 min from home when a doping control officer went to his home and his father answered the door. His father tried reaching him by phone but Katir didn't respond or return during the one-hour time slot. Katir claimed that he had set a different time slot – he changed it for that day after the DCO attempted to test him.

From the AIU decision:

“In summary, on 10 October 2023, a DCO attended the Home Address specified as the location for the Athlete’s 60-minute time slot between 19:20 and 20:20 for that day but was unable to locate him for Testing. The DCO was informed by the Athlete’s father that the Athlete was currently training about 30 minutes away from the Home Address. The Athlete’s father informed the DCO that he had attempted to reach the Athlete by phone but that the Athlete was not responding. The DCO remained at the Home Address until the end of the time slot but the Athlete did not return during that time…

On 27 October 2023, the Athlete submitted his explanation to the AIU. In summary, the Athlete explained that he was surprised to see that the 60-minute time slot indicated in his Whereabouts for 10 October 2023 was between 19:20 and 20:20 because he normally trains at that time…The Athlete asserted that this discrepancy must have been caused by a system error and stated that he was sure that his 60-minute time slot for 10 October 2023 had been set for between 07:00 and 08:00. The Athlete enclosed two screenshots from the Athlete Central App and ADAMS, showing that his 60-minute timeslot for 10 October 2023 was between 07:00 to 08:00…

The AIU reviewed the Athlete’s explanation and requested further information from WADA relating to the Athlete’s activity in ADAMS. Following a review of the ADAMS system logs provided by WADA, the AIU responded that: On 29 September 2023, at 08:19 GMT, the Athlete had updated his Whereabouts information, including changing his 60-minute timeslot to between 19:20 and 20:20 at the Home Address for the period from 1 October 2023 to 31 December 2023. On 10 October 2023, at 20:47 GMT, i.e., at 22:47 CEST7 (after the DCO had concluded the attempt), the Athlete had changed his 60-minute time slot for that day from 19:2020:20 to 07:00-08:00.”

– You can read the full decision here.