World 100m champion Christian Coleman has

been hit with a two-year suspension following three doping violations.

Athletes

face a two-year ban if they have three violations in a 12-month period.

The decision was handed down by the Athletics

Integrity Unit (AIU) today, and means that Coleman will miss the Olympic Games

scheduled for Tokyo, Japan next year.

The American, 24, narrowly missed a similar suspension just before last year’s World Championships in Doha, Qatar. He successfully argued that the first of three missed drug tests within a given one-year period, came before the 12 months began.

However, Coleman missed yet

another test on December 9, 2019, which became his third for that same 12-month

timeframe.

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The AIU, in handing down

its ruling, said “We see this case as involving behaviour by the athlete as

very careless at best and reckless at worst.”

Coleman can appeal against

his ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.