In November 2020 the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) of World Athletics has reported an anti-doping rule violation against the American Athlete Omar Craddock for his Whereabouts Filing Failures resulting in 2 Missed Tests within a 12 month period. After notification a provisional suspension was ordered. The Athlete filed a statement in his defence and he was heard for the World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal.
The Athlete did not challenge his Filing Failure on 1 April 2020 or the Misses Test on 29 July 2020. The Athlete only contested the Missed Test on 20 August 2019 and retracted his previous admission in his email of 29 August 2019. He testified that he believed he updated his Whereabouts information on 19 August listing 20 August as a travel day. He asserted with evidence that due to to problems associated with the used software the 20 August 2019 travel day was incorrectly entered into the system.
World Athletics rejected the Athlete's explanation that the Athlete believed he had updated his Whereabouts information for 20 August 2019 as a travel day on 19 August 2019. He had simply forgotten to update his Whereabouts information for 20 August 2019. Furthermore there had been no login activity (or attempted login activity) to either the website or the mobile application by the Athlete between 13 August 2019 and 20 August 2019.
Considering the evidence in this case the Sole Arbitrator concludes that the Athlete is responsible for 3 Whereabouts Failures within the 12 month period beginning 20 August 2019 and accordingly that he committed an anti-doping rule violation.
The Sole arbitrator finds that the Athlete had acted negligently as he had forgotten to update his Whereabouts while prior in his email of 29 August the Athlete indeed had admitted that he had missed the test on 20 August 2019.
Finally the Sole Arbitrator assessed the circumstances and the Athlete's of Fault in connexion with his 3 offences and deems that the Athlete's sanction can be reduced from 24 to 20 months.
Therefore the World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal decides on 7 May 2021 to impose a 20 month period of ineligibility on the Athlete starting on the date of the provisional suspension, i.e. on 13 November 2020.
