AIU bans Ethiopian 1500m runner Mosisa Siyoum eight years for EPO and tampering

The Athletics Integrity Unit has banned Ethiopian 1500m runner Mosisa Siyoum for eight years after an EPO positive and a finding that he tampered with the doping control process. Siyoum, who never represented Ethiopia internationally, gave urine and blood samples on February 21 and 22 in Torun, Poland. A laboratory in Lausanne reported EPO in the urine sample.

Siyoum told the AIU he had lost consciousness at home and been taken to a medical facility, and submitted paperwork to support the claim. The AIU found the documents false: the clinic's stated provider did not match the signature on the form, and two interviews plus inquiries with the health centre showed he had not been there that day. The tampering finding added years to what would otherwise have been a four-year sanction. His ban runs from May 5.

The AIU issued the decision alongside three other cases. Uzbek shot putter Doston Rajabov was banned five years after samples taken at the Asian Beach Games in April returned the steroids DHCMT and drostanolone, a finding the Olympic Council of Asia confirmed separately when it stripped his results from that meet. Ethiopians Sofiya Shemsu Chegan and marathoner Gelaye Atinkut, whose best is 2:27:51, each received four months for methylprednisolone use that predated a therapeutic use exemption later granted for the same substance.

Four cases in one release, four different stories: a cover-up, a multi-substance positive, and two paperwork timing errors. Worth remembering how differently the AIU treats intent.

Sources: Athletics Illustrated; Olympic Council of Asia.