Officials banned for false report for Olympic qualification

MONACO (AP) — Two track and field officials in Albania have been banned from the sport for falsifying an athlete’s result to help him qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. The Athletics Integrity Unit says long jumper Izmir Smajlaj was cleared of being part of the conspiracy to falsely register a national record in May 2021. It helped gain him entry to compete at the Tokyo Games. The case said Albanian officials Gjergj Ruli and Nikolin Dionisi “submitted falsified wind measurement readings” to try to register an 8.16-meter long jump as legal. Ruli was banned for five years and Dionisi for four years.