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Shaunae Miller-Uibo seeks answers from Lord Coe after Salwa Eid Naser escapes ban

Bahrain's Salwa Eid Naser celebrates after winning the Women's 400m final at the 2019 IAAF Athletics World Championships at the Khalifa International stadium in Doha on October 3, 2019 - AFP/GIUSEPPE CACACE 
Bahrain's Salwa Eid Naser celebrates after winning the Women's 400m final at the 2019 IAAF Athletics World Championships at the Khalifa International stadium in Doha on October 3, 2019 - AFP/GIUSEPPE CACACE

Olympic 400 metres champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo has cried “foul play” and demanded answers from Lord Coe after her shock conqueror at last year’s World Championships was cleared of incurring three whereabouts violations in a year.

Anti-doping chiefs are under pressure to appeal a decision by an independent tribunal to dismiss the case against Salwa Eid Naser amid an outcry from Miller-Uibo and two Britons she denied a medal at Doha 2019.

It emerged on Monday that Naser, who smashed her personal best by almost a second to beat Miller-Uibo this time last year and clock the third fastest women’s 400 metres time in history, avoided a sanction that could have seen her stripped of her title and banned from the Olympics thanks to an embarrassing mix-up by a drugs tester.

The tribunal cleared her of missing one test because a doping control officer mistook the door of a “storage unit” for that of the building in which she was staying.

The ruling was made despite an address that “did not exist” having been inputted for her into the online system used for locating athletes – the tester was forced to work out what the correct address was – as well as the fact that the intercom for the building where Naser was meant to be staying “did not work and had never worked” and that “her up-to-date ADAMS [Anti-Doping Administration & Management System] entry did not contain a phone number”.

Crying “foul play” over how the case had been handled, Miller-Uibo demanded answers from World Athletics president Lord Coe in a lengthy statement on Instagram.

“Please President Sebastian Coe, I would like to believe that we the athletes deserve a response from you detailing each step of all the failures that unfolded from this case,” she wrote.

“In my opinion, this federation has shown us over and repeatedly that they have not put their best foot forward to protect the athletes and keep the sport clean.”

Miller-Uibo also condemned the decision by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), which prosecuted the case against Naser, not to provisionally suspend her rival while it investigated three of four alleged whereabouts infractions during the months leading up to the worlds.

British mixed 4x400m relay pair Martyn Rooney and Emily Diamond, who the Naser-led Bahrain team denied a medal in Doha, had previously denounced that decision when Naser was charged in June.

There was no suggestion in the tribunal’s judgment that an incorrect address – one where the building number was out by one digit – had been entered deliberately for Naser for the alleged infraction it dismissed.

But a discrepancy for which she is personally responsible saw Rooney yesterday call for the case to go before the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

“People are serving bans for less,” Rooney told Telegraph Sport. “It’s ridiculous.” He added: “I know it costs a lot of money to go to CAS but it would be money well spent.”

His relay team-mate, Emily Diamond, posted on Twitter: “Genuinely lost for words. I hope this goes to CAS and they can show some common sense. Not where you say you are in your 1hr slot= Missed test. What’s the confusion.”

Sports Briefing
Sports Briefing

The AIU has already said it is considering whether to appeal, while the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Witold Banka, posted on Twitter that he was “concerned” enough to examine doing the same.

The AIU’s own website tells athletes a whereabouts violation will be recorded against them if: “You have filed your whereabouts on time but they are incomplete or inaccurate or insufficient to enable us to locate you for testing.”

Naser has yet to react publicly to being cleared, having prompted anger when the charges against her first emerged by claiming missing three drugs tests “is normal” in an Instagram Live video in which she also declared: “I’ve never been a cheat. I never will be.”

Her 48.14-second run in Doha last October was one of the most astonishing performances of the entire World Championships, taking almost a second off the personal best she had set a year earlier.

It was also the fastest time in the world since 1985, catapulting her to third on the all-time list behind East German world record holder Marita Koch and Jarmila Kratochvilova, of Czechoslovakia.

World Athletics last night said the handling of anti-doping cases was a matter for the AIU, which said it was unable to provisionally suspend an athlete under investigation until he or she had been charged.