The Ethiopian Athletics Federation, angry over flagging results in recent years, summoned 200 athletes to a training camp two months ago ahead of the World Indoor Championships in March and the London Olympics in July and August.

But Bekele and other athletes, including Olympic women’s 5,000m and 10,000m gold medallist Tirunesh Dibaba, ignored the call-up, technical director Dube Jilo said.

“We have banned 35 athletes, including Kenenisa and Tirunesh, from competing in any event,” he said. “It has been two months now since we summoned every athlete in contention, but this group has so far failed to respond.”

He said the ban would be reconsidered as soon as the athletes reported for training. Bekele, 29, who has yet to decide if he will compete in London, where Britain’s Mo Farah would be one of his main rivals, said he had been injured.

“My injury is quite serious and I would not be able to bring back the performance of old for the time being,” he said. “It will take weeks before I return to ordinary training, and two to three months before I return to competition.”


Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/