ETHIOPIAN middle-distance runner Diribe Welteji has been banned for two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport after failing to provide a doping sample in February 2025.
The court also disqualified all her competitive results since that time, a period which includes her 1,500 metres silver medal at the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China in March last year.
Welteji, also a silver medallist outdoors in the women’s 1,500 meters at the 2023 world championships, was provisionally suspended in September, causing her to miss last year’s world championships in Tokyo.
The Ethiopian national anti-doping body (ETH-NADO) had initially found that Welteji had not violated any anti-doping rules, but World Athletics appealed to CAS, seeking a four-year suspension.
CAS ruled yesterday that Welteji would be suspended for two years.
“All competitive results obtained by the athlete during the period from and including 25 February 2025 through the date of the CAS award shall be disqualified,” CAS said in a statement.
A sole arbitrator appointed by CAS found that Welteji had “failed to establish any compelling justification for her failure to submit to sample collection,” but “established that her failure was not intentional.”
The backdated suspension begins on July 8, 2025, and ends on June 30, 2027, CAS said.
Welteji will be 25 when the suspension ends, with the 2027 edition of the World Athletics Championships set to kick off in Beijing from September 11.
—Reuters
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