Christian Coleman, the world’s fastest man, faces a ban that could see him miss next year’s Olympics after a latest anti-doping whereabouts failure.
Global sprinting’s heir apparent to Usain Bolt admitted overnight he had missed a third drugs test in the space of 12 months, which has triggered a provisional suspension and could lead to a two-year ban from the Athletics Integrity Unity.
The missed test dates back to December 9 and Coleman claimed: “I think the attempt on December 9 was a purposeful attempt to get me to miss a test”.
The American sprinter, who won 100m gold at last year’s World Championships, had previously missed tests on January 16 and April 26.
Of the third missed Test he claimed testers had, “knocked while I was Christmas shopping 5 mins away at the mall and didn’t even bother to call me or attempt to reach me.
“I was more than ready and available for testing and, if I had received a phone call, I could’ve taken the drug test and carried on with my night. I was only made aware of this attempted drug test the next day on December 10.
“I have never and will never use performance-enhancing supplements or drugs. I am willing to take a drug test every single day for the rest of my career to prove my innocence. I have nothing to hide but it’s not possible to show that if I’m not even given a chance to.”
Coleman narrowly escaped a ban in the build-up to last year’s World Championships on a technicality after a whereabouts filing failure was backdated, meaning three violations stretched across a period longer than 12 months.
