SALWA EID NASER, the women’s 400-meter world champion, avoided a ban on a doping rule violation due to a technicality, the Athletics Integrity Unit announced Tuesday.

The 22-year-old, who won gold at the World Championships in Doha last year, was charged and provisionally suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) in June. According to World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules, any combination of three whereabouts failures — filing failures or missed tests — within a 12-month period by an athlete constitutes an anti-doping violation.

Athletes guilty of whereabouts failures could face two-year bans or a minimum of one year depending on the degree of fault. In Naser’s case, the disciplinary tribunal upheld three of the four AIU charges against her — a filing failure effective Jan. 1, 2019 and two missed tests, on March 12 last year and Jan. 24 this year.

However, the tribunal found in Naser’s favor with regard to a third alleged missed test April 12, 2019, which resulted in the charges being dismissed because her three whereabouts failures did not occur within a 12-month rolling period.

“This was a case very much on the borderline and we hope the athlete will learn from the experience and heed the AIU’s warnings,” the tribunal said in a statement.(SD-Agencies)