The newspaper claimed thatL’Equipe“French – In a new attack on Algerian athletes during the 2024 Paris Olympics – Algerian runner, Jamal Sajati, is being investigated regarding possible or close suspicions of doping, according to the report published just seconds after the final of the 800m race at the Paris Olympics.
Sajati (25 years old) was satisfied with the bronze medal in the 800-meter race final, which was held today, Saturday, August 10, after Algerians and many followers in the world expected him to win the gold medal, given what he presented this year in all the Diamond League stations.
Sajati broke his personal record and the Algerian record several times this year, the last of which was during the Diamond League in Monaco, when he recorded the third fastest time in the history of the 800m race, at 1:41:46 minutes, before all these records were broken during the Olympic final.
Experts ranked the 800-meter final at the Paris Olympics as the fastest in history, considering that the first-place winner, Kenyan Emmanuel Wanyonyi, achieved a time of 1:41.19 minutes, and the second-place winner, Marco Arop, recorded a time of 1:41.20 minutes, which are the third and fourth fastest times in history.
Strange French report and the timing of its publication is even stranger
The French newspaper “L’Equipe” said today, Saturday, August 10, in a strange report added to the successive hostile reports it prepared regarding the Algerian boxer, Iman Khalif, before the latter responded with a judgement and won the gold medal, that Jamal Sajati is the subject of a French investigation regarding “suspicion of doping”, which happened hours before his final race.
The French report stated: “Algerian Djamel Sajati, who won the bronze medal in the 800-meter race at the Olympic Games, is being targeted with legal action,” and continued: “Our sources confirmed that agents of the Central Office for the Fight against Environmental and Public Health, which is also responsible for combating doping, conducted inspections in the Olympic Village on Thursday, August 8.”
The French newspaper continued: “The investigation was targeting the Algerian athlete, who specializes in the 800-meter race, Jamal Sajati, and his coach, Amar Benida,” and added: “According to our information, the gendarmerie forces of the Central Office for the Fight against Environmental and Public Health, which has jurisdiction over the fight against doping products, intervened in the Olympic Village as part of the investigation opened by the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office.”
Algerian Olympic Committee defends Sajati
In this context, the Algerian Olympic Committee issued an official statement, stating that: “A few seconds after winning the 800m bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics, the Algerian champion Jamal Sajati is receiving unjustified attacks from sports media outlets. The Algerian Olympic Committee expresses its strong dissatisfaction with these malicious attempts aimed at tarnishing the reputation of one of its champions and has taken all legal measures to protect him.”
He added: “Jamal Sejati showed exceptional talent and high sportsmanship on the track, and deserved this great achievement. Any attempt to question his integrity or achievements is an attempt to strike at Algerian sports as a whole, and we will not stand idly by in the face of these attacks, and we affirm our full support for the champion Jamal Sejati and all our athletes who represent Algeria in international forums with all honor and pride.”
Did the French investigation distract Jamal Sajati’s focus in the final?
The controversial French report raised many questions about the psychological and mental state of the Algerian runner, Jamal Sajati, during his participation in the 800-meter final, especially after he failed to win the gold medal, which he was the most prominent candidate to obtain during this Olympics and according to the nominations of the followers, as evidenced by his control over his elimination races in the Paris Olympics.
The strange thing is that Jamal Sajati participated in many races, the most prominent of which was during the Diamond League stages, without any problem, and without being subject to any investigation or doubt, despite breaking all the records, before the doubts came from the French and on French soil, which raises doubts about this step, and the strange thing is that this move came only hours before the final race.
The French repeat Makhloufi’s experience with Sajati
This is not the first time that the French have accused Algerian athletics champions, as it happened with former Olympic champion Tawfik Makhloufi in June 2021, when France 3 claimed that French security found in September 2020 sports bags containing “substances used in doping” in Makhloufi’s room at the French Institute of Sport and Higher Education in Paris.
The alleged report added that security found inside those bags injection needles and materials used by injection, in addition to personal documents belonging to the Algerian champion, who trains regularly at the French Institute of Sports and High Level.
The “Stade 2” program stated that the health branch of the Paris court opened an investigation into the possibility that the ownership of those suspicious materials returned to Tawfik Makhloufi, and that he committed a criminal offense under French law; however, time revealed the falsity of those allegations, which did not reveal the truth of everything that was said, and the matter stopped at that media report only.
Makhloufi responded strongly to those accusations at the time, describing what the French channel published as a “malicious campaign against him,” stressing that he is “an honest athlete and a clean champion” who is regularly monitored by the International Association of Athletics Federations and the World Anti-Doping Agency.
“I have had a biological passport for years, and like all champions, I regularly undergo doping control by the authorized bodies, namely the International Federation and the World Anti-Doping Agency,” Makhloufi said in an interview with the official Algerian Press Agency. “I have never had a positive sample because I am a clean athlete and I will not give up my principles and ethics today,” he added.
Makhloufi, who won a gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics and two silver medals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, continued: “I have never come close to doping throughout my sporting career, and all the achievements I have made were the result of work, perseverance, patience and sacrifice.”
