(Reuters) – American 400 metres runner Randolph Ross has been handed a three-year suspension for violating whereabouts rules and falsifying an email sent to anti-doping authorities, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said.
Ross, who was part of the U.S. squad which won 4x400m relay gold at last year’s Tokyo Olympics, will be suspended until 2025, meaning he will not be eligible for participation at the 2024 Games in Paris.
The 21-year-old was provisionally suspended during the World Championships in July, a month after officials were unable to locate him to administer a test. That was his third whereabouts breach in a 12-month period.
“Ross admitted to AIU representatives that he altered a system-generated email (confirming an apparent update to his whereabouts information for the relevant period) to try and avoid a third whereabouts failure within a 12-month period,” the AIU said in a statement.
Ross’s results from June 18 of this year have been declared void, but his Olympic gold medal will be not be affected as it is outside the 12-month period of his whereabouts failures.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
