Ethiopian middle-distance runner breaks anti-doping rules which means Georgia Hunter Bell is upgraded to silver from last year’s World Indoor Champs.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has handed Ethiopian athlete Diribe Welteji a two-year ban for an anti-doping rule violation.
The decision, announced Thursday (Feb 26), triggers a reshuffle of the podium from the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, with Britain’s Georgia Hunter Bell set to be upgraded from bronze to silver.
The case stems from an out-of-competition testing attempt on February 25 last year. Doping control officers arrived at Welteji’s home, but were reportedly told by her husband that the athlete was asleep. Despite conflicting witness accounts of what followed, the officers left without a sample.
While an Ethiopian disciplinary panel initially cleared her in August 2025, World Athletics appealed to CAS.
The CAS arbitrator ruled that while Welteji’s failure to provide a sample was “negligent” rather than “intentional” — partly citing language barriers — she failed to provide a “compelling justification” for the missed test.
Consequently, all her results from February 25, 2025, onwards have been disqualified. This includes her silver medal from Nanjing and her personal best of 3:51.44 set at the 2025 Prefontaine Classic.
For Hunter Bell, the British 1500m record-holder, the upgrade adds another accolade to a career that already includes an Olympic 1500m bronze and world 800m silver. The redistribution of medals also benefits Australia’s Georgia Griffith, who moves from fourth into the bronze medal position, marking her first individual senior global medal.
Welteji, the 2023 world outdoor 1500m silver medallist, has been serving a provisional suspension since July 2025, which saw her miss the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo. Her period of ineligibility is set to conclude on June 30, 2027, allowing her to return in time for the 2027 World Athletics Championships in Beijing and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.