Julius Yego’s threat banned after doping test
Athletics
By
Reuters
| Jul 27, 2016
CAIRO, Egypt's Olympic hopeful Ihab Abdelrahman, a silver medallist in the men's javelin at last year's world championship, has been suspended for failing a doping test. The Egyptian was seen as one of Julius Yego's threats in the upcoming Olympics.
"We received news that Ihab has failed a doping test. We have asked for sample B to be tested. We hope the result is negative," Egyptian Olympic Committee president Hisham Hatab told Reuters.
Abdelrahman has protested his innocence in a television interview.
"I am a million per cent innocent," he said. "I have been taking food supplements since 2013 and passed every previous test.
"I feel like I'm in a nightmare. It's impossible I have put myself in this situation.
"I did urine and blood tests in February and the results were negative. I was also tested in May and the result was negative. Why is this the only positive result? Why did this happen at this time."
Egypt's anti-doping authority NADO said Abdelrahman was tested in April and his A sample gave a positive reading at a lab in Barcelona.
The 27-year-old secured Egypt's first medal at a major athletic championship in Beijing last year and was the country's biggest hope for a medal at next month's Rio Games.
Meanwhile, Canoeing's governing body has banned five Russians, including a gold medallist and a five-times world champion, from next month's Rio Olympics after an explosive independent report revealed state-run doping across Russian sport.
"We are clear that if you step out of line you won't make the start line," International Canoe Federation secretary general Simon Toulson said, as canoeing became the latest sport to bar Russians from the Games in the fall-out over the roiling doping controversy.
Their exclusion takes the number of Russians banned from taking part in Rio to 18 since Sunday when the International Olympic Committee decided not to issue a blanket ban on all Russian competitors, instead leaving it up to each sport to decide what to do.
"The International Canoe Federation (ICF) has taken swift action to remove five Russian canoe sprint athletes from the Rio Olympic Games following the release of additional information naming those implicated by the McLaren report," the ICF said.
"In each case the ICF will impose an immediate suspension pending further investigation making the offending athletes ineligible to compete at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games."
The five were named as Elena Aniushina, Natalia Podolskaya, Alexander Dyachenko, Andrey Kraitor and Alexey Korovashkov.