Olympic long jump silver medallist Luvo Manyonga is set to miss the Tokyo Games after being banned for four years for a second anti-doping rule violation, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said on Friday.
The 30-year-old South African’s ban has been backdated to Dec. 23, when he was provisionally suspended, and he will be eligible to compete again from Dec. 23, 2024—meaning he will also not be eligible for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Manyonga, who was previously banned for 18 months over the presence of methamphetamine in a sample, was charged with an anti-doping rule violation for missing a test on Nov. 26, 2019, and two filing failures in April and October last year.
World Athletics rules define any combination of three missed tests and/or filing failures within a 12-month period as an anti-doping rule violation.
The independent disciplinary tribunal’s sole arbitrator said Manyonga did not cooperate and declined to attend a hearing scheduled on May 28.
Besides the ban, the athlete’s competitive results from Oct. 1 to Dec. 23 will also be disqualified.
Manyonga, who won silver at the Rio Olympics in 2016, has 30 days to lodge an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
