World champion runner Salwa Eid Nasar may miss out on the Tokyo Olympics next summer. The women's 400-meter champion, who recently had charges stemming from breaking anti-doping rules dismissed, is now facing a new legal case that could reverse the ruling on her anti-doping case.
On Thursday, track and field's Athletic Integrity Unit announced on Twitter it is appealing the decision to dismiss charges against Nasar.
"The AIU has submitted an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the Disciplinary Tribunal's decision to dismiss the charges against Salwa Eid Naser (BRN) for Whereabouts failures," the AIU wrote.
The AIU has submitted an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the Disciplinary Tribunal's decision to dismiss the charges against Salwa Eid Naser (BRN) for Whereabouts failures. #AIUNews pic.twitter.com/90zRdqiyJh
— Athletics Integrity Unit (@aiu_athletics) November 12, 2020
The 22-year-old was previously charged after missing doping tests. She never gave out details on her whereabouts for sample collection officials, but a technicality resulted in the charges getting dismissed. Her three whereabouts failures happened in a 12-mont period, but an independent tribunal judged the violations technically occurred over more than one year.
That ruling was big for Naser, who was then able to keep her 2019 world championship title. The dismissal of the charges also allowed for her to compete for Bahrain in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. However, her status for the games are now up in the air again with the AIU's appeal.
The Tokyo Olympics were scheduled for summer of 2020, but were postponed to next summer due to the coronavirus pandemic. Naser's 400 time in the 2019 world championships was the fastest since 1985.
