Eight-time World champion Michael Johnson has argued for longer bans for missed tests.
Speaking days after it emerged Bahraini’s World 400m champion Salwa Eid Naser has missed three tests in the 12 months before winning the world 400m title last year and another in January, the outspoken American sprinter posted on Twitter:
“I believe the sport can legally increase the punishment for missed tests,” the four-time Olympic champion wrote.
Johnson, the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games 200/400 champion who also won the 400m title at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, added: “Increase the punishment to 4 years, and you’ll see fewer missed tests.”
“Two (2 years) gives the presumption of innocence already.
“Maybe it’s not labelled as equal to positive, but the punishment should be,” said the eight-time World champion.”
Johnson held the 200 and 400m world records up until Jamaican Usain Bolt and Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa removed his marks.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Bolt clocked 19.30 to break the 200m record before lowering the mark again the following year to 19.19.
Van Niekerk, in the meantime, erased Johnson’s old 400m world record of 43.18 when he produced a remarkable 43.03 seconds to win the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games title in 2016
