Ethiopian runner Welteji banned over missed drug test which overshadowed world champs

One of the world’s top middle-distance runners has been banned for two years in a dispute over a missed drug test which overshadowed the opening of last year’s World Championships.

Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji, the silver medallist in the women’s 1,500 metres at the 2023 World Championships, was ruled to be “negligent” in failing to comply with an attempt to collect a doping test sample last year, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said on Thursday.

World Athletics wanted a four-year ban but CAS reduced the sanction, accepting Welteji’s rules violation was not intentional. The two-year ban ends in June 2027, when Welteji will be 25, and means she could qualify for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

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Welteji was initially cleared by an Ethiopian tribunal in August and was due to race on the opening day of the World Championships in Tokyo the following month. World Athletics objected and she was ruled ineligible to compete the day before.

CAS said in its statement that drug testers arrived at Welteji’s property in February 2025 and were told by Welteji’s husband that she was asleep, and that witnesses disagreed about what took place after that until the testing staff left without a sample.

CAS said its arbitrator accepted there were language barriers and that “certain technical and best practice departures occurred” but that “an athlete of (Welteji’s) calibre and experience should have known that she was required to comply regardless of the timing of the visit.”

Published on Feb 26, 2026