World Athletics accuses Portugal of lack of anti-doping tests

“We did a comparative study with other federations that were at the Oregon2022 World Cups and the statistics speak for themselves, the data is there. (…) Portugal did not increase the level of testing”, the person responsible for testing at World Athletics told Lusa agency in competition.

The Italian Stefano Longo, who spoke on the sidelines of the presentation of the 33rd edition of the Lisbon Half Marathon, said that, for the body that oversees world athletics, “it is important that the number of tests increases” so that the rule is complied with 15 of the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU).

According to a table recently released by the AIU, the Portuguese athletics delegation at the Oregon2022 World Championships presented 0.91 tests per athlete out of competition, one of the lowest testing values ​​among the teams present.

When it comes to the average number of tests per athlete out of competition, the 0.91 “per capita” is only above Mexico (0.80), New Zealand (0.75), Ecuador (0.53) and the Czech Republic ( 0.45), with the highest value belonging to Ethiopia (8.03).

Based on these results, the AIU reported that four federations – Portuguese, Brazilian, Ecuadorian and Peruvian – received “clear warnings” about the “insufficiency of their national testing programs [antidoping] after the Oregon2022 World Athletics Championships”.

“The four failed to ensure that there would be out-of-competition testing for their national teams at the following World Championships in Budapest 2023. Consequently, the Council [da World Athletics] accepted the AIU’s call for the four federations to impose eligibility conditions on their athletes so that they can participate in Paris2024,” the authority explained in a statement.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the Portuguese Anti-Doping Authority (ADoP) guaranteed that it complied with international standards and said it had already responded to World Athletics about the need for Portuguese athletes to be further tested before the Paris2024 Olympic Games.

The president of the FPA, Jorge Vieira, endorsed ADoP’s position, and guaranteed that the organization he leads is “intolerant” of doping.