Ethiopian Runner Banned for Missed Test
Ethiopian middle-distance star Diribe Welteji has been handed a ban after missing a drug test that overshadowed last year's World Championships. Welteji, who won her women's 1500m semifinal at the 2024 Summer Olympics, now faces a career setback as anti-doping authorities enforce stricter protocols.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) imposed a two-year ban on Welteji for a missed out-of-competition test in February 2025, where she failed to provide a sample to doping control officers. While World Athletics pushed for a four-year ban, the court ruled that the violation was not intentional, citing factors like language barriers. As a consequence of the ban, all of Welteji's results from February 25, 2025, are disqualified. This includes the silver medal she won in the 1500m at the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships. Her personal best time of 3:51.44 in the 1500m, which had placed her eighth on the all-time list, has also been annulled. The suspension will conclude on June 30, 2027, making the 23-year-old eligible to qualify for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The provisional suspension had already kept her out of the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. Welteji is a decorated runner, holding the silver medal from the 1500m at the 2023 World Championships and the world record in the women's road mile. She finished fourth in the 1500m final at the 2024 Paris Olympics, a race won by Kenya's Faith Kipyegon in an Olympic record time. The anti-doping system requires athletes in a registered testing pool to provide their whereabouts for one hour every day for potential unannounced testing. An accumulation of three whereabouts failures—which can be a missed test or inaccuracies in the filed information—within a 12-month period results in an anti-doping rule violation.
