MONACO: Italian steeplechase runner Ahmed Abdelwahed was given a maximum four-year ban by the Athletics Integrity Unit on Thursday and is due to be stripped of his European Championships silver medal after testing positive for the banned drug meldonium.
Abdelwahed tested positive in August 2022 on the day that he finished second at the Euros in Munich.
Meldonium, an endurance-boosting heart medication, has been banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency since 2016. Athletes testing positive for it early that year included tennis player Maria Sharapova, who served a 15-month ban.
Abdelwahed maintained that he never used meldonium and that the positive case was the result of a biotransformation process involving a supplement. But the integrity unit rejected the athlete’s theory as “unspecific and highly unlikely,” adding that since meldonium has been banned for nearly eight years, “it stands to reason that if such biotransformation had occurred, it would have already been identified.”
Fellow Italian Osama Zoghlami, who had finished third in Munich, will likely be bumped up to the silver medal, and Daniel Arce of Spain should move into the bronze medal spot. Topi Raitanen of Finland won gold in the race.
At the Tokyo Olympics, Abdelwahed placed 14th in the steeplechase.
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