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AIU strike out Ethiopian from World Championships as American sprinter is banned
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Reading Time: 2min | Fri. 12.09.25. | 16:38
Both cases were decided by the Court of Arbitration of Sports following successful AIU appeals
Ethiopian athlete Diribe Welteji will not take part in the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo after the Court of Arbitration of Sports (CAS) upheld an Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) application for the runner to be provisionally suspended for an Anti-Doping Rule Violation.
In a statement on Friday, 12 September, AIU confirmed the 23-year-old had been barred from taking part in the championship that begins on Saturday, 13 September, where she had been expected to take part in the 800 and 1500m events.
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The decision by the CAS Division President comes a day after AIU announced it had appealed a 27 August decision by the Ethiopian Anti-Doping Authority national hearing panel to clear the 2023 World Championships silver medalist of a breach of the Anti-Doping Rules, where she is said to have failed to submit a sample.
The provisional suspension, which AIU indicated will stay pending the outcome of their appeal by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), comes as a major blow to the 2023 World Road Running Championships winner, who will now miss out on a chance of winning her first global championships medal.
Welteji finished second behind Faith Kipyegon in Budapest, before finishing just outside the podium a year later in the Paris Olympic Games, won again by the Kenyan.
Knighton banned
Meanwhile in another major announcement by AIU, American sprinter Erriyon Knighton has been handed a four-year ban from the sport, following a CAS decision to uphold two appeals by the organization.
AIU appealed against the First Instance Decision of an arbitral tribunal in the USA that found that Knighton had established No Fault or Negligence for his ADRV after testing positive for a metabolite of the steroid, trenbolone in March 2024.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has upheld two appeals by the Athletics Integrity Unit and by the World Anti-Doping Agency against USA athlete, Erriyon Knighton, following an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV). pic.twitter.com/2EXcMK9HW9
— Athletics Integrity Unit (@aiu_athletics) September 12, 2025
Knighton, 21, had blamed his positive test on eating contaminated meat, but will now serve a significant amount of time out of the sport.
The fourth-place finisher at the Tokyo and Paris Olympics had been entered to compete in this year’s World Championships as a member of the USA relay squad.
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