Grenadan runner Taplin's four-year doping ban remains

GENEVA - Olympic finalist Bralon Taplin from Grenada has lost his appeal against a four-year ban for evading a doping test and will miss the delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the next two editions of World Athletics Championships.

The 28-year-old, who finished seventh in 400-meter at the 2016 Rio Olympics, was accused of avoiding a doping test after winning a race on April 23, 2019, in Grenada, and has been banned until April 23, 2023, by Caribbean anti-doping organization.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said Tuesday that he claimed that he had not been adequately notified for the doping control test "to be implausible" and therefore rejected his bid.

The judge "was comfortably satisfied that the athlete was guilty of the offense of evading sample collection," the CAS noted in a statement.

Taplin will miss the postponed Tokyo Olympics as well as the worlds at Eugene, the United States in 2022, and its 2023 edition in Budapest, Hungary.