If you happen to assume you’ve seen all of it in operating, assume once more. On Wednesday, the lads’s 70+ one-mile American document holder, Robert Qualls of Reno, Nev., was suspended for 3 years for violating U.S. Anti-Doping Company (USADA) guidelines after testing constructive for a number of prohibited substances.
The 72-year-old examined constructive for amphetamine and 19-norandrosterone (19-NA), a metabolite of nandrolone (19-nortestosterone), and different 19-norsteroids from a urine pattern collected on the USATF Masters 5K Championships on Feb. 24, the place he gained his males’s 70-74 division. Amphetamine is assessed as a stimulant, whereas nandrolone and testosterone are categorized as anabolic brokers. All these substances are prohibited in response to the World Anti-Doping Company Prohibited Record.
U.S. Monitor & Area Athlete Robert Qualls Accepts Sanction for Anti-Doping Rule Violation https://t.co/S2OXeI9eNo
— USADA (@usantidoping) June 26, 2024
USADA usually doesn’t take a look at masters athletes as steadily as professionals competing on the nationwide degree, however in response to the report, USADA was contacted by occasion organizers to conduct testing and handle outcomes for this occasion.
Qualls is a famend age-group runner, having gained gold within the males’s 70+ 10K on the World Masters Athletics Championships final yr in Poland, and one other world title on the 2022 World Masters in Finland. He has gained the final six USATF Masters 5K Championships for his age class, however his newest win will likely be disqualified as a result of constructive doping take a look at.
![Robert Qualls USATF](https://runningmagazine.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/robert-qualls-3-978x1024.jpg)
Qualls, an ecologist and former professor on the College of Nevada (Reno), at the moment holds the American mile document for the 70+ age group with a time of 5 minutes and 33 seconds.
Since Qualls admitted wrongdoing and accepted the asserted sanction inside 20 days of notification, he’ll obtain a one-year discount from the in any other case relevant four-year interval of ineligibility. He is not going to be eligible to compete till 2027, when he will likely be 75.