Anti-doping fight: an American Olympic champion suspended

On the straight line, she won the two most beautiful titles on the planet: the first world title in Moscow in 2013 and the second Olympic three later in Rio.

But today, the American Brianna McNeal is going through a complicated time.

This was indeed temporarily suspended on Thursday for "obstructing the anti-doping process".

The announcement comes from the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU).

The latter accuses the 29-year-old sprinter of "obstructing the results management process, a violation of the anti-doping rules of the International Athletics Federation".

The IAU does not, however, give more details on the underlying reasons for this measure.

The AIU has charged Brianna McNeal (USA) for tampering within the results management process, a violation of the @WorldAthletics Anti-Doping Rules.

The hurdler has been provisionally suspended.

👁️ ⬇️https: //t.co/opInfkVlnV#AIUNews pic.twitter.com/qrY2G8NwWA

- Athletics Integrity Unit (@aiu_athletics) January 14, 2021

Seven months before the Tokyo Olympics if the latter are maintained, it is a new blow for American athletics, already in turmoil.

One of the big stars, sprinter Christian Coleman, was banned for two years for three breaches of his anti-doping whereabouts obligations.

The reigning 100m world champion appealed against this sanction to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

To return to Brianna McNeal, she had already been suspended for a year between 2017 and 2018 for three breaches of her anti-doping whereabouts obligations and had thus missed the London Worlds in 2017. Back to competition in 2018, the American had disqualified for a false start in the series at the 2019 World Championships in Doha.

Business is linked

For several months, doping cases have been linked for the first Olympic sport and most often concern cases of breaches of localization obligations.

In June 2020, Bahraini Salwa Eid Naser, world champion in the 400m, was temporarily suspended for this reason.

Before being cleared on October 20 by the disciplinary tribunal of the International Athletics Federation.

The IAU has appealed the decision to the CAS.

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South African Luvo Manyonga, silver medalist at the Rio Games in the long jump, was provisionally suspended on Friday, and Kenya's Elijah Manangoi, the 1,500m world champion in 2017, was deprived of competitions for two years in November, again because of breaches of whereabouts obligations for doping controls.