Two junior and junior medalists and the track and field relay team will now lose their medals at the tournament.
They faked their age and were too old to run.
Meanwhile, seven countries have been blacklisted on suspicion of cheating in competition results ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (WA) is cracking down on a well-known type of cheating, which has been around for a long time in athletics but has been difficult to prove.
But WA’s independent integrity agency AIU has found several cases of age fraud and suspected competition-fixing.
Doping is already a major problem in athletics, but widespread cheating on results and birth data is often allowed to fly under the radar.
Until now.
Now comes a slap in the face for both states and activists.
Eleven results have been canceled due to age cheating and seven countries have been banned by suspects for cheating in the results of domestic competitions.
Before the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, suspected fraud in competition results was discovered in a number of countries.
The results were manipulated so that the actors could qualify for the Olympics.
Get rid of the medals
The IAAF is now choosing to put Turkey, Albania, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Moldova and Uzbekistan on the blacklist of countries suspected of cheating in results.
All qualifying results from competitions in the seven countries – with the exception of international tournaments – will be disqualified.
There is an exception for national championships for each country, but then WA requires that three selected observers be sent to each tournament and at the expense of each blacklisted country.
In the same sweep, many active people who cheated at their age lose their medals
China’s Shi Dongpeng lost his silver in the JVM in 110 hurdles from 2002, Saudi Ahmed Nizar Al Sharafa and lost the bronze medal at the 2003 World Youth Championships, and the Saudi relay team from the 2005 World Youth Championships also lost their bronze.
– The right medalists finally got their medals, says AIU President David Howman.
This corrected some historical errors, but age manipulation remains an issue and the AIU is currently investigating more suspected cases later.
Howman says regarding cheating with eligible results.
There it is about protecting active people who are at risk of being robbed where they deserve it. We are investigating several suspected cases of manipulation of qualifying results ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.
