Olympic silver medallist receives three-year ban for faking age

On Friday, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) banned Dominican Republic sprinter Luguelin Santos for 3 years for faking his age to compete on the 2012 World Junior Championships (now World U20 Championships) in Barcelona, the place he gained gold within the males’s 400m.

The AIU has banned Luguelin Miguel Santos Aquino (Dominican Republic) for 3 years, from 11 March 2023 to 10 March 2026, for violating Guidelines 141 (Age classes), 9.6 (Corrupt Practices) and 9.10(c) (Failure to report) of the IAAF Competitors Guidelines 2012-2013 (…) pic.twitter.com/rSxaW4xknU

— Athletics Integrity Unit (@aiu_athletics) December 1, 2023

Santos admitted to competing within the 2012 championships with a passport displaying a falsified date of start of Nov. 12, 1993. He was born on that date, however in 1992, making him ineligible to take part within the World Juniors in 2012, being over the age of 20. In response to the AIU, his gold medal shall be rescinded and his outcome shall be disqualified.

Santos, now 31, admitted utilizing a “particular passport” with a falsified start yr (1993) to compete. (Santos used his real passport with the right start yr (1992) for different official functions.)

The AIU provisionally suspended Santos on July 8, 2022 and formally charged him on Dec. 22, 2022. Santos accepted the fees on Jan. 13, 2023, and on March 11, he confessed to collaborating in a contest whereas being over age. The three-year ban displays the athlete’s acceptance of the rule violation. Santos broke a number of guidelines below numerous World Athletics Competitors Guidelines, together with collaborating whereas not eligible, plus partaking in corrupt practices.

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Santos’ three-year interval of ineligibility runs from March 11, 2023, to March 10, 2026. The AIU said its concern over the prevalence of age manipulation, citing its influence on the integrity of junior athletics competitions. 

Whereas the age-manipulation ban disqualifies Santos’s gold medal from the 2012 World Junior Championships, it doesn’t have an effect on the silver medal he earned on the 2012 London Olympics within the males’s 400m. Santos has had a stellar skilled profession in observe and discipline, profitable three international medals within the 400m, together with two Olympic silvers. He additionally gained the lads’s 400m at the 2015 Pan American Video games in Toronto.