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After evaluating the 2019 reports from the World Athletics Member Federations, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) Board has decided to maintain the Category A status of Bahrain, Belarus, Ethiopia, Kenya and Ukraine for 2020 and add Morocco and Nigeria to this category for the current year under Rule 15 of the World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules.

Rule 15 of the World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules sets out the National Federations’ anti-doping obligations. It was introduced at the beginning of 2019 following a recommendation from the AIU Board to the World Athletics Council. The purpose of the rule is to ensure that Member Federations have clear anti-doping obligations, play a greater part in ensuring a level playing field and elevate the overall standard of integrity in athletics.

Under the rules, National Federations are categorised annually by the AIU Board in three different categories — A, B and C — according to the level of doping risk to the sport. (Category A having the highest doping risk to the sport and Category C the lowest).

“All five countries that were in Category A last year showed a marked improvement over 2019 in several areas but they need to maintain that good work, and close scrutiny needs to continue for the time being, before any changes in the status of these federations is made,” commented AIU Chairman David Howman.

“In 2019, the Athletics Federation of Nigeria failed to report on compliance with the Rule 15 obligations as a Category B country. This very serious situation motivated the AIU Board to move Nigeria into Category A.”

Despite significant efforts from the Royal Moroccan Athletics Federation to put in place an appropriate national anti-doping program, a number of national level issues have not been addressed. The doping threat in Morocco remains acute and the AIU considers that more needs to be done to address the threat, where applicable, with the support of the relevant Moroccan authorities.

The complete list of Member Federations as per their categorisation for 2020 has been published on the AIU website and can be seen here.

Rule 15 of the World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules can be found here. The criteria applied by the AIU Board in making its categorisation decisions can be found here. A summary of National Federation obligations by category can be found here.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Scrap the flipping games and let people plan for next year. The IOC is waiting for people to lose billions of $
    Do the honourable thing IOC

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