Tested positive in July 2023, the quadruple French 100m champion was suspended for nine months this Monday, April 29. Which deprives him of the Olympics in Paris this summer.
French sprinter Mouhamadou Fall was notified on Monday of his suspension for nine months by the sanctions committee of the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) after testing positive for a banned stimulant, theAFP his lawyer, Christophe Ayela.
Testing positive in July 2023 for heptaminol – a stimulant banned in competition – the 32-year-old athlete, who was aiming for the Olympic Games this summer in Paris, had pleaded accidental contamination via food supplements. He is suspended for nine months “from now on”specified Me Ayela, adding that he was studying appeals.
“Unfair decision”
“This is an extremely serious and unfair decision”reacted the lawyer, who received the decision on Monday afternoon from the AFLD sanctions commission, an independent body. “Everyone agrees that he has never doped and that he is the victim of contamination via food supplements”he added.
Sixth in the world championships in Budapest with the 4×100 meters relay in 2023, Mouhamadou Fall pleaded at the beginning of April to accidental contamination via food supplements which without his knowledge contained octodrine, of which heptaminol is a metabolite. Without contesting the thesis of contamination, the representative of the AFLD college, Antoine Marcelaud, then requested a 15-month suspension instead of the two years incurred. In the decision of the sanctions commission, “he is criticized for not having been careful enough in the choice of food supplements”explained Me Ayela on Monday.
Appeal to the Council of State?
According to the World Anti-Doping Agency, heptaminol like octodrine are substances which belong to the class of stimulants prohibited in competition but which can be found in many medications or supplements.
Mouhamadou Fall, who trains in El Paso (Texas), sees his participation in the Olympic Games disappear with this suspension. Quadruple French champion over 100 meters (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023), he could however appeal to the Council of State, indicated Me Ayela. When his positive test was made public in September, the athlete had already been the subject of another procedure with the AFLD which accused him of three breaches of his anti-doping whereabouts obligations in 2022. He was acquitted in July 2023 in this first case but the AFLD filed an appeal before the Council of State which is still pending.
