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Middle-distance runner Rashid Ramzi will not be returning to the Olympic stage after failing to qualify for a place in the Bahrain athletic squad travelling to London for the 2012 summer games.
Moroccan-born Ramzi, whose two-year suspension for doping officially ended in early May of last year, was involved in ‘serious training’ to compete again at international level.
Bahrain Athletic Association had his name pencilled in as a possible candidate provided he reached the standard required. A spokesman said: “Ramzi has not qualified.”
He would not elaborate on the reasons but the situation takes the pressure off the Bahrain team as it would have been placed under the media spotlight had the 32-year-old qualified for a spot in the 1,500m race, one of the most prestigious events in the world of athletics, which he had previously competed in and given Bahrain false hope of its first-ever Olympic track and field gold medal.
In August of 2008, he was slapped with two years’ ineligibility by the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) for a doping offence and was found to have used a banned blood-boosting substance in retroactive tests after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. It then ordered Bahrain’s Olympic committee to return his gold medal ‘as soon as possible’ and asked the IAAF to modify the 1,500m results.
