Ireland's Rhasidat Adeleke was left agonisingly close to a medal in Friday's 400m final, as she came home in fourth place.
Hopes were high for the 21-year-old going into the event after a silver medal in this summer's European Athletics Championships ramped up expectations.
Adeleke put in an impressive run in the final to cross the line in a time of 49.28 but she would ultimately come up short by 0.3 seconds from Poland's Natalia Kaczmarek in third place.
Ahead of Kaczmarek, there was cause for a few eyebrows to be raised.
The 400m title was deservedly won by Marilediy Paulino of the Dominican Republic, the strong favourite coming into the event living up to expectations.
However, in second place was Bahrain's Salwa Eid Naser. The 2019 world champion has recently served a two-year ban for missing three drug tests in 12 months in the lead-up to those World Championships.
Naser has never tested positive for any banned substances and has repeatedly protested her innocence. She was initially charged with missing four tests, with one of those chalked off due to the testing official mistakenly going to the wrong address. The Bahraini runner was found guilty of "whereabouts failures" by the World Anti-Doping Agency, with her ban upheld despite an appeal.
Nonetheless, the presence of a previously banned athlete on the podium drew question marks over the 400m final in Paris.
Naser was quizzed on the matter after beating Adeleke and the rest of the field to silver, and took issue with the topic being raised in the immediate aftermath of the Olympic final.
READ HERE: Sonia O'Sullivan Sums Up Harsh Reality Of Olympics After Rhasidat Adeleke Heartbreak
READ HERE: David Gillick Had Amazing Words Of Comfort For Distraught Rhasidat Adeleke After Olympic Final
Salwa Eid Naser responds to strong question on doping test controversy
In the post-race press conference on Friday night, Gavin Cooney of The42.ie had a strong line of questioning for Bahrain's Salwa Eid Naser.
Cooney asked Naser whether she thought it was fair that she had been allowed to compete despite her previous failure to comply with anti-doping regulations in missing three tests.
Video (with sound working this time) here pic.twitter.com/o3RnmjJ7gV
— Gavin Cooney (@gcooney93) August 9, 2024
Naser would repeat her previous line that missing the tests was down to a "mistake a normal human being can make," before expressing her displeasure with having been banned in the first place.
Eid Naser: My drug tests...they were never intentional. I would never want to miss a drug test. I really don't have anything to hide, so they were never intentional, just mistakes a normal human being can make. What I think is not fair is me being banned because I did nothing, it was never intentional. Me being banned was unfair to me but I'm thankful I'm here today.
Cooney: The court of arbitration ruled that you had given untruthful testimony to them.
Naser: If you read...from going to the wrong door, going to the wrong address...at that time I was not responsible about information. Them changing a filing failure to a whereabout...a mistest... [laughs]
Cooney: Every other athlete in that field tonight did not have the same issues you had. Do you not feel that that is unfair on them?
Naser: What is not fair is me being banned.
Naser would later express displeasure that she had not been congratulated before being quizzed on her previous ban.
Bronze medallist Kaczmarek would speak up in Naser's favour, saying, "First of all, all was fair here in this competition. All was fair, they were just faster than I was.
"Perhaps Salwa had some problems but now everything is okay, she's clean and I don't think basically it's a problem."
With Rhasidat Adeleke having narrowly missed out on a medal in Friday's race, it was perhaps only natural that some Irish punters online would draw attention to Naser's dotted past.
Irish runner Nick Griggs would take to Twitter to say, "Disappointed for Rhasidat being failed by the doping system. Olympic medalist if these things were fair. Inspiring never the less."
He also retweeted another Irish runner Abdel Laadjel, who said that Adeleke was "3rd in my eyes."
There is no evidence that Naser has ever taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs. Though her presence in the 400m final certainly added a murkier feel to the event, it's equally clear from her responses last night that Naser herself feels hard done by the doping system.
SEE ALSO: The Agony Of Fourth: Rhasidat Adeleke And Other Irish Olympians Who Just Missed A Medal
