Auriana Lazraq-Khlass handed 22-month ban for whereabouts breaches

French heptathlete Auriana Lazraq-Khlass has received a 22-month suspension for whereabouts breaches, BBC Sport reported. The Athletics Integrity Unit said the sanction takes effect from 26 March 2026. The 2024 European silver medallist had already been provisionally suspended.

The case concerned three failures between February and November 2025. According to the BBC, Lazraq-Khlass accepted the first two, involving failures to update her location in an app. She disputed the third, saying an intended update for the following day had instead been applied to the current day.

The tribunal found negligence, while saying she did not appear to have been trying to avoid testing, the BBC reported. Her results from 20 November 2025 will be disqualified. The suspension keeps her out until January 2028.

Whereabouts rules enable testing without advance warning, the International Testing Agency explains in its athlete guidance. Athletes in a Registered Testing Pool must supply information that allows officials to find them, including overnight accommodation, training, travel and competition schedules. They must also nominate a daily 60-minute window when they will be available and accessible for testing. The nominated hour must fall between 5am and 11pm, the guidance states. That hour does not limit when testing can happen: officials can also test athletes outside the nominated period.

The agency distinguishes a filing failure, involving late, inaccurate or incomplete information, from a missed test, when an athlete cannot be tested at the declared location during that hour. Any combination of three such failures within a rolling 12-month period constitutes a whereabouts violation under Article 2.4 of the World Anti-Doping Code. Sanctions can include up to two years out of sport and disqualification of results. Athletes must update their information promptly when plans change and remain responsible for its accuracy.

Lazraq-Khlass, 27, finished 16th at the Paris Olympics in 2024. BBC Sport also noted her 12th-place finish at the 2023 World Championships and 18th in 2025. Her European silver came behind Nafissatou Thiam.