Dominican Republic 400m runner is stripped of his 2012 world junior 400m title but keeps Olympic silver from the same year

Luguelín Santos has been given a three-year ban for age manipulation after turning up to the 2012 World Junior Championships in Barcelona with a false passport and winning 400m gold.

The Dominican Republic athlete went on to win Olympic 400m silver behind Kirani James (pictured above) in London in the same summer but will keep that medal.

However the 31-year-old now has a ban that started in March this year and runs until March 2026.

His 400m best is 44.11 and he won 400m bronze at the 2013 World Championships and mixed relay silver at the Tokyo Olympics.

Santos admits to competing in the 2012 World Junior Championships with a passport showing an incorrect date of birth November 12, 1993 whereas he was born on that date in 1992. This means he was ineligible to participate in the World Juniors 2012 which, based on the 2012 World Athletics rules, required junior athletes to be aged 18 or 19 on December 31 of the competition year.

From 2010 to 2017, Santos declared 1993 as his birth year for competitions. However, in February 2018 he declared his birthdate was November 12, 1992, based on a passport issued in 2018.

Santos won that world junior title in 44.85 from Arman Hall of the United States (45.39) with Steven Solomon of Australia and Aldrich Bailey of the United States tying for third (45.52).

Hall, who went on to win 4x400m gold at the 2013 Worlds and 2016 Olympics, has not competed since 2021 and is now a sprints coach at Texas State University.

Brett Clothier from the Athletics Integrity Unit said: Our ongoing investigations have been unearthing a disturbing level of cheating, through age manipulation, which has distorted results of junior athletics competitions at the highest level. In this instance, a World Junior champion was wrongfully crowned, and the rightful winner was denied his moment of glory.

The AIU has banned Luguelin Miguel Santos Aquino (Dominican Republic) for 3 years, from 11 March 2023 to 10 March 2026, for violating Rules 141 (Age categories), 9.6 (Corrupt Practices) and 9.10(c) (Failure to report) of the IAAF Competition Rules 2012-2013 () pic.twitter.com/rSxaW4xknU

Athletics Integrity Unit (@aiu_athletics) December 1, 2023

Beyond that, age manipulation is challenging us to confront serious issues, including embedded cultures which are teaching youth inappropriate values, as well as providing the means for athletes ages to be altered in national documents, and ultimately celebrating ill-gotten victories. The AIU stands firmly against such actions and will pursue all such alleged violations vigorously.

Clothier added: Unlike with sanctions for doping violations, there was no 2012 rule that provided for the disqualification of future results in age-eligibility cases, so there is no basis on which to annul his Olympic result as that was not an age-group event and no violation was committed there.