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A20 SPORTS
Tuesday 3 sepTember 2019

U.S. sprint star Christian Coleman cleared of doping violation

By EDDIE PELLS AP he said he’d be when they day that because there man in the manner that not true,” and that he ex-
National Writer came to test. weren’t three failures within USADA understands should pected to be cleared.
Top sprinter Christian Cole- But the World Anti-Doping 12 months it would not pur- be applied to any other Had WADA authorities not
man will be eligible for this international-level athlete. given him a friendly in-
month’s world champion- We must approach every terpretation of when the
ships and next year’s Olym- case with the primary goal clock starts on a where-
pics after the U.S. Anti-Dop- of delivering fairness to ath- abouts failure, he could
ing Agency dropped his letes under the rules and have faced a case with
case for missed tests be- providing transparency a potential for a two-year
cause of a technicality. and consistency in order to ban.
Coleman is the reigning build their trust and support An interpretation of the rule
U.S. champion and a fa- for the anti-doping system.” in the official WADA docu-
vorite in the 100 meters, a USADA said in 2018 and ment says a “filing failure
distance at which he holds 2019, Coleman has provid- will be deemed to have
the world-leading time over ed his whereabouts infor- occurred on the first day of
the past three years. mation on time every quar- the quarter for which the
The worlds begin Sept. 28 in ter and has been tested by Athlete fails to make a (suf-
Qatar, where Coleman will USADA on 20 separate oc- ficient) filing.”
be looking to add to the sil- casions. In this case, the first day
ver medal he won in 2017. Both WADA and the orga- of the quarter was April 1.
In that race, he finished a nization that handles dop- Coleman’s “filing failure” —
spot ahead of Usain Bolt, In this July 26, 2019, file photo, Christian Coleman celebrates as ing cases for track’s inter- not being where he said he
who was running in his last he wins the men’s 100-meter dash final at the U.S. Championships national federation has the would be for a test — came
athletics meet, in Des Moines, Iowa.
100. Associated Press right to pursue the case, June 6 because he was not
Coleman faced a possible though it’s not expected in the place he said he’d
sanction for three “where- Agency’s interpretation of sue the case. they will. be in the form filled out
abouts failures” over a the rule backdated his first “Consistent application of Shortly after details about April 1.
12-month period. failure to April 1, 2018, in- the global anti-doping rules the case went public, Cole- This rule is being rewrit-
That meant he either did stead of the date it actu- is essential in every case,” man released a statement ten to eliminate confusion
not fill out forms telling au- ally occurred, June 6, 2018. USADA CEO Travis Tygart saying “what has been for a new version of the
thorities where he could be His final failure was April said. “In this case, we ap- widely reported concern- code, which takes effect in
found, or he wasn’t where 26, 2019. USADA said Mon- plied the rules to Mr. Cole- ing filing violations is simply 2021.q