Lord Coe Says Athletes Should not ‘Minimise’ Whereabouts Rule

World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe says no athlete should “minimise the importance of the whereabouts rule” after 100m world champion Christian Coleman missed three doping tests in a 12-month period.

The 24-year-old American sprinter, who was provisionally suspended earlier this month, risks a two-year ban that would rule him out of next year’s Tokyo Olympics.

Coleman said in a statement on Twitter that he was the victim of “a purposeful attempt to get me to miss a test” on December 9, 2019.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), the anti-doping arm of World Athletics, said “a phone call is discretionary and not a mandatory requirement”.

“It’s not really our policy to comment on unresolved cases – this is now quite properly a matter for the AIU,” said Coe.

However, Coe said the whereabouts rules were “absolutely a part of our landscape and the vast majority of athletes accept them and actually welcome them as being a protective mechanism for them”.

He added: “No athlete should minimise the importance of the whereabouts rule. The whereabouts rule is to protect the athletes, it’s to protect their reputations and it’s to make sure that we move as hard and as fast as we can to drug-free sport.

Coleman – who clocked 9.76 seconds to win his first major title at the World Championships in Doha in September 2019 – had previously missed a test on January 16, 2019, and experienced a filing failure on April 26, 2019.

Three whereabouts failures in a 12-month period can result in a ban of up to two years by the AIU.