Adel Mechaal and Mohamed Katir have many things in common. His Moroccan nationality, his humble origins, his arrival in Spain at the age of five (one to Palamós and the other to Mula), his long road to be able to compete with his host country and even his problems with doping. They never got along and didn't hide it. Mechaal, a veteran who felt displaced by the young Katir, never believed in the Muleño. He was suspicious of her records and his triumphs from the first moment.
For Mechaal, 33 years old, Katir's emergence was like the one that a few years earlier involved Ilias Fifa, another Moroccan who had allegedly arrived in Spain on the underside of a truck (over time it was proven that this was false), he began to win races and medals (he was proclaimed European 5,000 meters champion in Amsterdam in 2016) and in October 2017 he was punished with a four-year ban for possession of doping substances. In a house search, several vials of Actovegin 200mg – the so-called EPO of the poor – were seized and Fifa fell into disgrace. Not forever, since last year he was Spanish champion of the 10,000 meters and was selected by the RFEA for the European Cup, achieving a continental bronze medal on his return to top competition after six seasons.
Katir will be out of combat for two years, but for Mechaal, his number 1 enemy and the one who is getting the most wet since the Muleño case broke out, “everything has been proven,” highlighting the fact that the Muleño has not even defended himself and has accepted the two-year punishment imposed by the International Athletics Federation for violating the localization regulations in doping controls three times.
No appeal to the CAS
In an interview with 'Relevo', Mechaal admits to feeling “very happy” about the punishment applied to Katir, the maximum allowed for an athlete who has not tested positive. «I would have liked him to have gone to the CAS, and for him to have been acquitted or for him to have gotten four years. What logic tells you is that he should have tried, at least; that he would have wanted to prove that he was innocent. But the AIU has done very well in publishing all the failed controls, and in publishing the excuses or allegations that he has made. That has shown a little that perhaps Katir did not want to be [preparado para el control antidopaje] “the day it was due.”
«When you see that an athlete stands out a lot, that doubt arises in you. And then, over time, it is shown whether your doubt was correct or not.
Mechaal, king of the national 1,500, 3,000 and 5,000 during the last decade and who was displaced by the appearance of Katir, believes that the Muleño cheated since his arrival in elite athletics. «With Katir everything has been proven. The anger that perhaps I felt was that I had been fighting for years, years and years for those Spanish records of 1,500 or 3,000, and that even today I have not been able to beat them… And suddenly he arrived and beat them without passing neither by 3:37, nor 3:36, nor 3:35, nor 3:34, nor 3:33, nor 3:32, nor 3:31, nor 3:30, nor at 3:29. He went from 3:38 directly to 3:28 », explains Mechaal in the aforementioned interview.
«You see those marks, coming from nowhere… And there you say; 'What happened here?' So, yes, maybe I was speaking a little out of anger.”
And, for this reason, he always questioned Katir's successes. «You see those marks, coming from nowhere… And of course, there you say, damn; 'What happened here?' So, yes, maybe I was speaking a little out of anger, but now I'm happy. I continue to enjoy athletics, I continue running and they continue to treat me wonderfully everywhere I go. He now spends two years in Ifrán [Marruecos]”, training calmly, and when he returns, he will be welcome again,” he adds.
«The allegations or excuses that he has made have shown a little that perhaps Katir did not want to be there on the day it was due»
The curious thing about this whole matter is that Mechaal experienced a situation identical to that of Katir. It was in 2016, when he was banned for 15 months for failing three anti-doping tests. The big difference is that Mechaal appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which granted him a precautionary measure allowing him to compete while his case was being elucidated. The CAS finally annulled the sanction, attributing two of the three infractions to failures of the Adams system itself.
“I was innocent”
«At that moment, I said that even if all my assets were at stake, I knew I was innocent and I was going to go to the end. That they would punish me for life or that I would be acquitted. Finally it was proven that I was innocent and the Spanish Anti-Doping Agency made an agreement with me so that the CAS ruling would not be made public,” the Gerona-based athlete says about that episode. «What about Katir? There are reasonable trajectories and unreasonable trajectories. I am not going to dictate what is reasonable, but it is something that happens many times in athletics. When you see that an athlete stands out a lot, that doubt arises in you. And then, over time, it is shown whether your doubt was accurate or not,” he concludes.
#Mechaal #Katir #proven
