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March 11 (Reuters) – Athletes from Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Portugal will face more stringent out-of-competition (OOC) testing to be eligible for the Paris Olympics as their national testing programs are not sufficient, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said on Monday.
The decision comes after the World Athletics Council approved the recommendations from the AIU board to impose “tougher testing requirements on those federations” before the Olympics begin on July 26.
“The four federations received clear warnings from the AIU about the insufficiency of their national testing programs after the World Athletics Championships 2022 in Eugene,” the AIU said in a statement.
“All four failed to ensure that there was proportionate OOC testing for their teams at the following World Athletics Championships in Budapest 2023.”
“The Council has subsequently accepted the AIU’s call for all four federations to have testing eligibility conditions imposed on their athletes in order to participate in Paris 2024.”
The stringent conditions include athletes having undergone at least three no notice out-of-competition tests before July 4 while each of those tests should have been conducted at least three weeks apart.
“We are pleased with the council’s decision to support the AIU recommendations,” AIU Chair David Howman said.
“This action is tough, but necessary as we did not receive an adequate response from these federations to clear warnings we gave in the lead up to the World Athletics Championships last year.
“In this Olympic year, we trust this will be a reminder to all member federations that the AIU and World Athletics are extremely serious about ensuring a level-playing field for athletes.”