Paris (AFP)

French marathon runner Clemence Calvin is summoned to the French Anti-Doping Agency's (AFLD) sanctions commission on November 20th for the case of her refusal of control on March 27th, 2019 in Marrakech, have we heard? Monday from concordant sources.

Calvin's lawyer, Arnaud Pericard, confirmed to AFP the date, without comment. Contacted, the AFLD did not wish to express itself.

The runner-up marathon champion in 2018, who has consistently strongly refuted the charges, faces up to 4 years of suspension for evading doping control. It is already suspended temporarily.

The AFLD and the licensee of Martigues deliver totally opposite versions of what happened on March 27th. For the anti-doping authority, Clemence Calvin was apprehended in the street by a trio of controllers, who had traveled especially to Morocco for this mission. After driving them to a gym, she falsified them with the help of her husband and coach, athlete Samir Dahmani.

"On March 27, it was anything but an anti-doping test", had instead recounted the French, after having walled for several days in silence when the case had been revealed. According to his version, firmly refuted by the AFLD, the three controllers did not introduce themselves as such but as police and ordered him to lead them to her husband. The athlete filed a complaint in Morocco for "violence and threats", targeting the director of controls of the AFLD, Damien Ressiot.

Since then, the controllers have counter-attacked on the judicial ground, filing a complaint for slanderous denunciation, and the AFLD has summoned the athlete to appear in court for defamation.

Suspended temporarily, Calvin was deprived of the Doha World Athletics Championships. Her suspension had been lifted for the first time before the Council of State because of a procedural flaw and the Frenchwoman was able to run the Paris marathon on April 14th. She then set a new French record (2:23:41), but the time was not approved because of the disciplinary procedure.

Since then, the French athletics suffered a new blow with the revelations on an investigation of the AFLD aiming the European champion of the 10,000 m Morhad Amdouni, fixed in Qatar.

The German channel ARD has blamed it by revealing exchanges on Whatsapp messaging in which a person presented as a supplier of doping products claims payment to the athlete, especially for EPO.

Amdouni firmly rejected these accusations.

© 2019 AFP