Egyptian swimmers Mohamed Samy and Shahd Abdallah have been banned by World Aquatics for failing drugs tests last year.
The worldwide governing body’s Aquatics Integrity Unit has announced that Samy and Abdallah will be ineligible for periods of 18 months and two years, respectively.
The suspensions come after it was discovered that they had both failed drugs tests on June 16 last year.
Samy was found to have used SARMS (selective androgen receptor modulator) S-23 which can reduce natural testosterone levels and is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
His positive test came two days before Samy represented Egypt at the World Aquatics Championships in Hungarian capital Budapest where he featured in the 100 metres backstroke and 4x100m freestyle relay.
The 26-year-old will be unable to compete until December 19 this year.
Artistic swimmer Abdallah, who competed at the rearranged 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, has been suspended until June 25 next year – just one day before the Games in Paris are scheduled to open.
Abdallah was discovered to have used furosemide – a masking agent and diuretic which is on WADA’s banned list.
The banning of the two Egyptian swimmers comes after World Aquatics revealed that it collected 5,835 samples from 1,428 individual athletes, representing 101 countries across swimming, water polo, diving, artistic swimming, open water swimming, and high diving in 2022.
World Aquatics President Husain Al-Musallam claimed that last year’s figures were an example of the organisation’s “commitment to ensuring clean sport”.