Athletics
Former 800m world champion Pierre-Ambroise Bosse banned for 16 months
France’s former 800m world champion Pierre-Ambroise Bosse has received a 16-month ban from the French Anti-Doping Agency after missing three drug tests in the space of nine months. Bosse announced he was quitting athletics late last year due to recurrent injuries.
The sanction comes after the 31-year-old missed three drug tests between September 2022 and June 2023. Bosse had announced his retirement in December, seven months before the Paris 2024 Olympics. He had received notifications of breaches three times, with the period coinciding with his efforts to return to a high-level athletic performance despite grappling with a hamstring injury.
The initial breach occurred on 25 September 2022, when an anti-doping controller arrived at his residence to conduct a test within the athlete’s scheduled time slot, but Bosse was not available. He told French news outlet L’Équipe: “I was one foot in training, one foot on holiday.”
Bosse, who was eliminated at semi-final stage of the Tokyo Olympics, was enduring a thigh problem at the time. Following surgery in December 2022, Bosse embarked on a race against time with the aspiration of competing in his fourth Olympic Games in Paris.
On 1 May 2023, authorities tried to contact him again, but were unable to reach him during a time when he was with family in Nantes. “I wasn’t worried at that time because I had forgotten the previous one and so I thought I only had one. At that moment, I gave up completely.”
Then a month later, a controller returned to his residence for another scheduled check, but the athlete was evidently absent. He was subsequently informed a few weeks later of a likely two-year suspension for failing to fulfill such obligations.
Despite feeling dejected and shocked, Bosse attempted to defend himself by attributing the second violation to an issue with the absence of a doorbell.
“I made three mistakes, I accept. It’s true that I haven’t always been the best student when it comes to taking care of my location but, until then, it had never played any tricks on me. I know I should have been more serious but I would like to point out that I have been in the AFLD target group since 2012 and they have all my analyses.”
The 31-year-old was unable to recuperate following surgery on his right thigh last year and had been out of competition since April 2023.
Before his injury troubles he most notably secured fourth place in the 800m at the Rio Games back in 2016, and has yet to recapture the form that led to his crowning as the world champion over 800m in London in 2017. Bosse also got his hands on bronze at the European Championships in both 2012 and 2018.
Since leaving his beloved sport behind, the Frenchman has starred in two reality TV shows in his homeland and focussed on his association combining sport and ecology which he launched with his friend and former international team-mate Bryan Cantero.
Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan is the winner as the Court of Arbitration for Sports, CAS has rejected the appeals filed by World Athletics and WADA.
The decision confirms the decision taken by the World Athletics disciplinary tribunal finding that Tobi Amusan did not commit any anti-doping rule violation.
Here is the full statement of CAS.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed the appeals filed by
World Athletics (WA) and by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) against the decision issued on 17 August 2023 (the Challenged Decision) by the World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal (WADT) in relation to the hurdler Oluwatobiloba (Tobi) Amusan (Nigeria).
Accordingly, the Challenged Decision in which the WADT considered that Tobi Amusan did not violate Rule 2.4 of the WA Anti-Doping Rules (WA ADR) and that no period of ineligibility should be imposed on the Athlete is confirmed.
The Athlete was initially charged with committing an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) under Rule 2.4 WA ADR following three alleged Whereabouts Failures within a 12-month period.
In their respective appeal to CAS, WA and WADA had sought the imposition of a two-year period of ineligibility. The CAS Panel held a hearing on 19 January 2024. Having deliberated, the CAS Panel has issued its decision today dismissing both appeals. The CAS Panel unanimously acknowledged that the Athlete committed two filing failures but did not confirm the existence of a missed test, alleged by WA and WADA, which would have been the third Whereabouts Failure committed within a 12-month
period. Accordingly, the CAS Panel concluded that the Athlete did not commit an ADRV and that the Challenged Decision should be confirmed.
The reasoned award will be published by CAS unless the parties request confidentiality.
Nigeria’s Paris 2024 medal hopeful, Tobi Amusan has been cleared as the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) has dismissed the appeal filed by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the World Athletics.
She is therefore cleared to feature at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Amusan is the 100m hurdles world record holder.
The athlete was charged in July last year with missing three anti-doping tests in 12 months but was cleared of the offence by the Disciplinary Tribunal of the sport’s governing body, World Athletics.
The Integrity Unit of the World Athletics appealed the clearance which has now been dismissed by CAS, the final arbiter in the case.
CAS in its statement remarked that its panel “unanimously acknowledged that the athlete committed two filing failures but did not confirm the existence of a missed test, alleged by WA and WADA, which would have been the third Whereabouts Failure committed within 12 months.”
Amusan set the world record of 12.12 seconds in the world championships in Eugene, Oregon, in July 2022 and went on to win the title.
She finished sixth in the world championships in Budapest last year.
World Athletics’ anti-doping rules say any athlete failing to declare their whereabouts for a doping test on three occasions over 12 months is ineligible to compete for two years.
An elated Nigeria’s 100m hurdles world record holder, Tobi Amusan has thanked God for her success in an appeal filled against her by the Athletics Integrity Unit of the World Athletics.
Had the appeal been upheld, ,Amusan would have has to miss the Paris 2024 Olymoics.
“It’s ALL GOD” Amusan said in an Instagram post alongside the court’s announcement.
Amusan, who broke the world record during her semi-final race at the 2022 world championships, is a hot favourite in her signature event at the Paris Olympics, which begin on July 26.
World Athletics and WADA did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
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