Ah well - an end to the era of British athletes telling us how good yoghurt is!

World Athletics has put seven countries on its new competition manipulation watchlist.

 

It follows an Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) investigation into 17 reports of suspicious results in qualification for the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

 

The countries in question are Albania, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkey and Uzbekistan.

 

World Athletics said it will work with the countries to "improve and reform their competition procedures".

 

"The integrity of our sport is our highest priority at World Athletics," said World Athletics president Lord Coe. "Without it, we don't have a sport.

 

"Maintaining integrity requires eternal vigilance and this is a timely reminder that all our member federations must be equally committed to upholding the principles of fair competition."

Kenya's women's marathon world record holder Brigid Kosgei has withdrawn from Sunday's London Marathon due to injury.

 

Kosgei, 28, says an injury in her right hamstring has affected her ability to train over the past month.

 

The two-time winner in London was fourth in last year's race after taking silver at the Tokyo Olympics.

 

"I would like to prepare to be in top condition," she said. "We've decided it's best I withdraw and get further treatment on my injuries."

 

Kosgei, who won the London Marathon in 2019 and 2020, set the women's world record of two hours 14 minutes four seconds at the 2019 Chicago Marathon. She won this year's Tokyo Marathon in 2:16:02 - the fourth-fastest time in history.

Well I guess it means someone else will get a chance at winning the marathon! I can imagine how difficult it must be for her to pull out though, given all the effort that goes into preparing.

Jim Redmond, who famously helped his injured son Derek cross the finish line in Barcelona in 1992 in an iconic Olympic moment, has died aged 81.

 

 

 

 

Banned British sprinter CJ Ujah says a "convenient" £10 supplement bought from Amazon caused him to test positive for two prohibited substances at the Tokyo Olympics.

 

Ujah has been handed a backdated 22-month ban but cleared of intentionally taking prohibited drugs by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) and World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).

 

Britain was stripped of its Olympic men's 4x100m silver medal after he tested positive for Ostarine and S-23 at the 2021 Games.

Kenyan marathon runner Philemon Kacheran Lokedi has been handed a three-year ban after being found to have used a prohibited substance.

 

The 30-year-old returned a positive result for "testosterone of exogenous origin" in an out-of-competition test in April.

 

Kacheran was withdrawn from the Kenyan team before the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, and becomes the ninth Kenyan to be banned by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) since the beginning of July.

Men's Athlete of the Year longlist:

 

Kristjan Ceh (SLO)

Alison dos Santos (BRA)

Mondo Duplantis (SWE)

Soufiane El Bakkali (MAR)

Grant Holloway (USA)

Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR)

Eliud Kipchoge (KEN)

Noah Lyles (USA)

Anderson Peters (GRN)

Pedro Pichardo (POR)

Women's Athlete of the Year longlist:

 

Tobi Amusan (Ngr)

Chase Ealey (US)

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Jam)

Kimberly Garcia (Per)

Shericka Jackson (Jam)

Faith Kipyegon (Ken)

Yaroslava Mahuchikh (Ukr)

Sydney McLaughlin (US)

Yulimar Rojas (Ven)

Shaunae Miller-Uibo (Bah)

British sprinter CJ Ujah will be considered for selection after serving his drugs ban, says new UK Athletics technical director Stephen Maguire.

 

Ujah, 28, was handed a 22-month suspension after he tested positive for two banned substances, Ostarine and S-23, at the Tokyo Olympics.

 

Britain won silver in the men's 4x100m relay but was stripped of the medal following the doping violation.

 

"If [ujah] is available to compete we will select him," said Maguire.

 

"I haven't spoken to CJ in a couple of years. He made a mistake and that's clear, I need to see what the environment is like."

Kenya's 2021 Boston Marathon winner Diana Kipyokei and compatriot Betty Wilson Lempus have been provisionally suspended following failed drug tests.

 

Both Kipyokei, 28, and Lempus, 31, have also been charged with obstructing the Athletics Integrity Unit's (AIU) investigation by providing false information or documentation.

 

The two athletes tested positive for triamcinolone acetonide.

 

It means 10 Kenyan athletes have tested positive for the substance since 2021.

 

In comparison, only two other athletes have returned positive tests for the banned substance during the same period and the AIU noted the cases "are part of a recent trend in Kenyan athletics".

Ibrahim Mukunga Wachira and Keneth Kiprop Renju have become the latest Kenyan athletes to be provisionally suspended for alleged doping offences.

 

A total of 14 Kenyan athletes have now been suspended - provisionally or otherwise - since July.

 

Renju became national champion over 10,000m in April, and also won half marathons in Prague and Lisbon and a 10km race in Lille this year.

 

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said the prohibited substance methasterone was present in a sample provided by the 26-year-old.

 

Meanwhile, the AIU said Mukunga Wachira had tested positive for norandrosterone.

The 10,000m records set by Eilish McColgan in the 2022 Great Scottish Run have been invalidated after the course in Glasgow was found to be 150m short.

 

The Commonwealth Games champion, 31, ran what was a new British record and surpassed her own European mark by finishing in 30 minutes 18 seconds.

 

But human error meant an area was not laid out in line with agreed plans.

World Athletics has been urged not to ban Kenya from the sport for violations of doping rules by a government minister from the East African country.

 

The nation is reportedly at risk of a sanction following a string of cases, with 55 of its athletes serving suspensions issued by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU).

 

Kenya's situation will be discussed at the World athletics council meeting in Rome next week.

Kenya's Kelvin Kiptum and Ethiopia's Amane Beriso became the third-fastest men's and women's marathon runners in history with victory in Valencia.

 

Kiptum, 23, completed his debut race in two hours one minute 53 seconds, while Beriso, 31, triumphed in 2:14:58.

 

Her time pushed Briton Paula Radcliffe's 2003 London time of 2:15:25 - a world record for 16 years - to fourth in the all-time list.

 

"I am more than happy. Conditions were perfect for me," she said.

 

Radcliffe's mark stood until 2019, when Kenya's Brigid Kosgei ran 2:14:04 in Chicago

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Armand Duplantis have been named world athletes of the year at the World Athletics Awards.

 

American McLaughlin-Levrone, 23, broke her own world record by almost three-quarters of a second as she won world 400m hurdles gold in July.

 

She clocked 50.68 seconds in Oregon, where she also won 4x400m gold.

 

Sweden's Duplantis won the world pole vault indoor and outdoor double in 2022.

 

The 23-year-old, who won the award in 2020, also improved his own world record to 6.21m and claimed the Diamond League and European crowns.

 

"Going into the year, I had really high expectations of myself and I had some really big goals," said Duplantis.

 

"I wanted to win the world indoors, the world outdoors, the Europeans, the Diamond League final, and I wanted to break the world record a few times.

 

"I was able to do that and it was a bonus - the cherry on top - to do be able to do it [break the world record] at the right times, to do it at world indoors and do it at world outdoors. I can't complain."

Trial winners Jessica Warner-Judd and Emile Cairess lead the British challenge at the European Cross Country Championships in Italy on Sunday.

 

Warner-Judd came fourth in the women's senior race last year and helped Great Britain win the women's team event.

 

"I was slightly disappointed not to medal last year but I look back and fourth place was really good because it was a stacked field," said Warner-Judd.

 

"I want the team to do well. We have a really strong group of girls."

 

Norwegian Karoline Grovdal won the women's senior title in 2021 and returns this year.

 

Cairess will bid to take the men's title from defending champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway.

Kenya's Pamela Jelimo has described the receipt of an Olympic medal as "painful" after her London 2012 bronze arrived a decade after competing in the 800m final.

 

The 2008 Olympic champion was upgraded from fourth to third in 2017 after the gold won by Russia's Mariya Savinova was taken away because of a doping infraction.

 

Jelimo did not receive her medal in front of a packed crowd in the English capital, instead she had to settle for a museum in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi this week.

Former Great Britain pole vaulter and Winter Olympics skeleton competitor Chris Type has been appointed head of performance at Welsh Athletics.

 

Type joins from Welsh Boxing, where he oversaw efforts at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

 

He has also coached the British skeleton team.

Russia's Natalya Antyukh has been stripped of 400m hurdles gold from London 2012 on the basis of historical data from a Moscow testing laboratory.

 

Antyukh, now 41, is already serving a four-year ban after being named in a World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) investigation into cheating by Russia.

 

American Lashinda Demus will be promoted to gold in her place.

 

All three gold medals won on the track by Russian athletes at London 2012 have now been rescinded on doping grounds.