{"id":290176,"date":"2023-04-27T00:24:31","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T00:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=290176"},"modified":"2023-04-27T03:58:32","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T03:58:32","slug":"officials-staged-photo-to-get-this-athlete-in-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=290176","title":{"rendered":"Officials staged photo to get this athlete in Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two track and field officials in Albania have been banned from the sport for falsifying an athlete\u2019s result to help him qualify for the Tokyo Olympics<\/a>, the Athletics Integrity Unit said.<\/p>\n

Long jumper Izmir Smajlaj was cleared of being part of the conspiracy to register a national record in May 2021 that gained him entry to compete at the Tokyo Games.<\/p>\n

The AIU had said Smajlaj, Albanian track federation president Gjergj Ruli and federation general secretary Nikolin Dionisi \u201cconspired together and submitted falsified wind measurement readings\u201d for the athlete\u2019s 8.16-metre leap in Tirana.<\/p>\n

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The jump, which was not legal by track and field rules, earned Smajlaj one of two available \u201cuniversality" entries \u2014 an Olympic wildcard given to lower-ranked nations \u2014 in the 32-man line-up for his event.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He was Albania\u2019s only men\u2019s track and field athlete at the Tokyo Olympics, where Ruli traveled as his coach, the AIU said. Smajlaj also competed at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.<\/p>\n

Dionisi admitted to four charges relating to honesty and integrity and was banned from the sport for four years, the track disciplinary body said. His backdated ban ends in December 2026.<\/p>\n

Ruli disputed the charges at a hearing in Nice, France, where three judges ruled they were \u201ccomfortably satisfied\u201d he was involved in the conspiracy. Ruli\u2019s five-year ban expires in April 2028.<\/p>\n

\u201cFederation officials are supposed to uphold fair play and clean sport, and we will hold them accountable for their actions should evidence show they are doing otherwise,\u201d Athletics Integrity Unit chair David Howman said in a statement.<\/p>\n

At the Tokyo Olympics, Smajlaj placed 17th in qualifying with a jump of 7.86 metres and did not advance to the final.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old athlete, who was European indoor champion in 2017, has had his provisional suspension from competition lifted. His valid career-best jump is 8.11 metres, set in 2019.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In a 22-page verdict, the judges said \u201cit is not disputed that Mr. Smajlaj did indeed\u201d leap 8.16 on the day but there was no equipment on site to measure the wind and validate the performance.<\/p>\n

The AIU asked on June 30, one month before the Olympic competition, for the Albanian federation to provide evidence of the jump and the equipment. A staged photograph was later sent.<\/p>\n

All three men \u201cultimately admitted there was in fact no wind measuring equipment at the relevant competition and that this photo was taken on a different day,\u201d the disciplinary verdict said.<\/p>\n

The judges criticised Ruli, Albania's track president since 2005 and a former national Olympic committee official, for displaying \u201cno remorse for his conduct\u201d but noted the sport in his country did not have much money for equipment.<\/p>\n

This impoverishment, the verdict said, put Albanian athletes "at a significant disadvantage in competing on the world stage."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> <\/em>clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two track and field officials in Albania have been banned from the sport for falsifying an athlete\u2019s result to help him qualify for the Tokyo […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":290178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=290176"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":290181,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290176\/revisions\/290181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/290178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=290176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=290176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=290176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}