The doping case of Surinamese sprinter and U20 100m world record holder Issam Asinga came to a close on Thursday in Switzerland. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dismissed Asinga’s appeal following an anti-doping rule violation in 2023 for the presence of GW1516 metabolites.
Asinga, 20, will continue serving his four-year ban, set to end in August 2027, and will have his U20 100m world record annulled.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed the appeal of Issamade Asinga against a 4-year ban for Presence of a Prohibited Substance (GW1516 sulfone, GW1516 sulfoxide), imposed by the World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal on 6 May 2024. pic.twitter.com/xP34371qIC
— Athletics Integrity Unit (@aiu_athletics) October 30, 2025
On July 18, 2023, Asinga underwent an out-of-competition doping test that revealed the presence of metabolites of GW1516, which is known to alter how the body uses fat for energy, promoting increased endurance and fat metabolism.
Ten days later, Asinga broke the U20 100m world record at the South American Athletics Championships in Brazil, running 9.89 seconds to become the first South American sprinter to dip under 9.9 seconds. Less than two weeks after that race, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) provisionally suspended him.
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At the time, Asinga denied any wrongdoing; his team told the AIU that the positive test was caused by Gatorade nutrition products he received after being named Gatorade National Boys Track and Field Player of the Year earlier that month. The 20-year-old said he had ingested Gatorade gummies to aid recovery one week before providing the sample.
The CAS investigated the gummies but found insufficient evidence to support Asinga’s description. “After considering the evidence, the CAS Panel found that the athlete had failed to establish that, on the balance of probabilities, it was more likely than not that the gummies he ingested before his anti-doping test were contaminated with GW1516,” the ruling read.
With Asinga’s U20 world record rescinded, Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo reclaims the record with his 9.91-second gold-medal performance at the 2022 World U20 Championships in Colombia.
