The Zambia Amateur Athletic Association (ZAAA) disputes a four year ban issued to Kabange Mupopo, who reached the final of the women’s 400m at the London 2017 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships. Mupopo was sanctioned with a four year ban from 6 August 2017 after testing positive at London 2017, the latest list of doping sanctions published by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) of the IAAF reveals (PDF below).

“From the medical results that we got from UTH [University Teaching Hospital], it was as a result of hormone imbalance”, Elias Mpondela, President of the ZAA, told The Mast, a local newspaper. “We have had a disagreement between their presentation and ours. We are saying it’s hormone imbalance – maybe we failed to prove to them the hormonal imbalance aspect.”

The AIU list also confirms four year bans issued to Kazakh 400m runner Yulia Rakhmanova; Kazakh junior Toshali Alikolov; Russian decathlete/heptathlete Vladislav Grinchuk; Iranian distance runner Narges Khani; Chinese distance runner Fengying Cao; Iranian sprinter Ali Arzhang Nezhad; and Batswana 800m runner Isaac Modiri Seoke (four years). It also confirms the six month ban issued to US high jumper Logan Boss.

The AIU list also confirms that Moldovan athlete Anna Berhii was sanctioned with a four year ban for refusing a test in February. Also in February, Belgian sprinter/long jumper Jeroen Gonnissen was issued with a public warning in relation to an in-competition test at the Belgian Indoor Championships.