World 100m champion Christian Coleman has been provisionally suspended for three missed tests within a 12-month period.
The Athletics Integrity Unit confirmed his third whereabouts failure occurred on 9 December last year.
“The AIU confirms a provisional suspension against Christian Coleman of the USA for whereabouts failures, a violation of the World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules,” AIU said in a statement.
He faces a ban of up to two years if found guilty.
Coleman said he was five minutes away and received no phone call from testers. He claimed he returned home before the end of the one-hour window and saw no testers. Coleman also said that testing documentation had the wrong address written on it.
In his social media post, Coleman said: “I think the attempt on 9 December was a purposeful attempt to get me to miss a test,” he added.
“I’ve been contacted by phone literally every other time I’ve been tested … Why would the AIU tell him not to call me?!”
Coleman was reported before last year’s World Championships to have had three whereabouts failures. Still, he was cleared to compete in Doha by the US Anti-Doping Agency because the first test was realised to be outside the applicable period according to the rules.
