The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has accused Spanish athlete Mohamed Katir of manipulation by charging him with 'tampering'. The body, the highest authority in the fight against doping in athletics, announced on the social media platform X that the AIU had accused the Murcia athlete.

The term suggests that the 26-year-old athlete cheated in his arguments to justify his "unknown whereabouts" and failure to attend the required doping tests on three occasions, according to a case he was charged with in February 2024.

The AIU has announced another case against Mohamed Katir for violating the rules on sample tampering in doping tests, which could add to his two-year ban.

A new twist in Mohamed Katir's case could further delay the Spanish athlete's return to the track, as the middle-distance runner could see his suspension for breaching anti-doping rules, which currently sees him suspended until 6 February 2026, two years after the publication of his punishment for failing three doping tests within a year.

The Athletics Integrity Unit of World Athletics, the anti-doping body that imposed the sanction, announced on Wednesday that Katir has also been charged with violating Article 2.5 of the anti-doping rules, "tampering" or sample manipulation, which can also be understood as obstruction of justice, without providing further details of the case pending the imposition of the sanction.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules are clear and define a number of actions as doping manipulation. These include offering or accepting a bribe to perform or refrain from performing an act that prevents the collection of a sample, interfering with or making it impossible to analyse a sample, falsifying documents, or any other attempt to fraudulently interfere with doping controls.

The situation of the World 5,000m silver medallist is further complicated by this new charge. Katir, who was suspended for being unavailable on three occasions when the AIU called him for random drug testing, had attributed the incidents to errors in the ADAMS platform system.

He later changed his defence strategy and admitted his guilt, attributing his error to serious oversights. The athlete has been suspended for two years, until 6 February 2026, after which he will be eligible to compete at the World Athletics Championships.

Mohamed Katir, 26, burst onto the athletics scene in 2021, breaking the Spanish 1,500m, 3,000m and 5,000m records in just 40 days. 

Last year, he set the European records for the indoor 3,000m and 5,000m, although he was stripped of these titles due to an additional penalty on top of his suspension for failing the third surprise doping test.

The athlete still holds three medals: World silver over 5,000m in Budapest 2023, World bronze over 1,500m in Eugene 2022 and European silver over 5,000m in Munich 2022.