The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has acted again — but this time it’s not about doping, it’s about age fraud!
World Athletics announced that three Ethiopian athletesBirke Haylom), Melknat Wudu) andMedina Eisa) are suspected of age falsification, and the five U20 world records they set between 2023 and 2024 will not be recognized.
The five world records include:
June 2023,Bi'erke Hailuomu
U20 women's 1 mile world record, 4:17.13
February 2024,Bi'erke Hailuomu
U20 women's 1500 m world record, 3:58.43
February 2024,Meleknat Wudu
U20 women's 3000 m world record, 8:32.34
May 2024,Birke Haylom
U20 women's 5000 m world record, 14:23.71
September 2024,Medina Eisa
U20 Women 5000 m world record, 14:21.89
Birke Hailom won the women's U20 1500 m world title in 2022. Her passport lists her date of birth as January 6, 2006, making her 18 at the time, but investigations show she was already over the age limit when she competed, seriously undermining the fairness of the U20 competition.
In 2022 and 2024, the women's 5000m U20 world championMedina Eisa's birth date was registered as January 3, 2005, but she was actually born on October 17, 2002, three years older than the passport date. She was already 22 at the time, so she was ineligible to compete in those two U20 events. According to the World Athletics website, her birth date has been corrected back to 2002.
Age fraud is relatively common across Africa; because birth registration systems are imperfect, the scope for manipulation is considerable. According to Nigerian news media, at the 2025 African U20 Championships held in Abeokuta, Nigeria, as many as 15 athletes were found to have multiple birth dates.
This problem is not limited to East Africa. In 2023, Dominican sprinter and Olympic medallist Luguelín Santos admitted he was overage at the 2012 World Junior Championships, where he won the 400m title, and was banned for three years.
Santos said that from 2010 to 2017 he competed using a passport with a falsified birth date at the direction of Dominican authorities, while retaining a passport with his real birth date.
World Athletics and the AIU have not yet issued detailed statements regarding the three Ethiopian athletes, but age-falsification violations can be punished with bans of two to four years.
Text:David / Editor:David
