TOKYO, 29 July (BelTA) – Three Belarusian track-and-field athletes from the final entries for the Tokyo Olympic Games were declared not eligible to compete at the Olympics, the press service of the Belarusian NOC told BelTA citing coaches of the Belarusian athletics team.
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) did not allow Maryia Zhodzik (Women's High Jump) and two members of the Women's 4x400m Relay team to perform at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo because the minimum testing requirements of the Anti-Doping Rules were not met by ‘Category A' Federations.
“Maryia Zhodzik qualified for the Games during Belarus' championship on 25 June, and she added 10cm to her personal best result, improving her jump height from 186cm to 196cm. This is substantial progress. At the request of AIU, Zhodzik and two of our sprinters Hanna Mikhailava and Krystsina Muliarchyk were required to pass three out-of-competition doping tests with an interval of 21 days before the start of the Games. There was no opportunity to meet the 21-day requirement. We hoped that we would be met halfway. But 20 athletes from other countries found themselves in such a situation. The agency decided: if they allow one to compete, they would have to clear the rest. If athletes fail to pass additional tests, the agency runs the risk of missing a violation before the Games, so they banned everyone who found themselves in such a situation. Although, in my opinion, this requirement should be revised in relation to young athletes. If elite athletes are always on the radar of anti-doping authorities, then young athletes should also get their chance to participate in the Games,” head coach of the Belarusian national athletics team Yuri Moisevich said commenting on the situation.
He assured that coaches will put together another team for Women's 4x400m Relay to compete in the qualification on 6 August.
