The AIU came out today and confirmed Manangoi's suspension for whereabouts failures, which means the 2017 world champ in the 1500 is banned until December 2021.
I read over the case and his explanation for the missed tests are as follows.
Test 1: July 3, 2019
He was traveling back from the Pre Classic and his flight was delayed because his luggage was missing. His house key was in his luggage. He arrived back late on July 2 and said it was already past midnight (so technically July 3) by the time he realized he had to change his window (set for 8-9 a.m. at his training camp in Nairobi).
I was under the impression he still could have changed his window for that day even though it was after midnight when he arrived home. Seems preventable.
Test 2: November 12, 2019
Manangoi's window was 5-6 a.m. He says he was late returning from a night shift connected with his role with the Kenya Police Service since he got caught up in a traffic jam.
Test 3: December 22, 2019
Manangoi says he delegated responsibility for his whereabouts to someone else (not named) and they messed up the dates when he was traveling back from Germany. Thus his window was set at 5-6 a.m. on December 22 when he wouldn't be back in the country until 2:35 p.m.
I tend to believe his explanations (I'm not certain how frequent traffic jams are at 5 in the morning in Nairobi though). But believing him and believing that he should be cleared are two different things. He deserves blame here. Couldn't Manangoi have still changed his window in the first case?
We don't have all the details in the second case, but he was delayed over an hour by traffic at 5 in the morning? Where was he coming from? He probably should have given himself more time to get home.
The third one is the craziest thing to me. He's sitting on two missed tests yet he is still not updating his own whereabouts? I feel bad for the guy, but you have to take responsibility for your own whereabouts at that point. He put his faith in someone else and was let down. Once you have two missed tests, your #1 priority every day should be to make sure you don't have a third. That's a lot harder to do if you're trusting someone else will take care of everything for you.
https://twitter.com/aiu_athletics/status/1327283872191684608