UPDATE 1-Athletics-Sprinter Coleman's whereabouts charge withdrawn by USADA

American sprinter Christian Coleman had a whereabouts charge against him withdrawn by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) on Monday, making the 100 metres favourite eligible for this month's world championships in Doha. The case in which USADA had charged Coleman with three failures to properly file whereabouts information in a 12-month period, a potential anti-doping violation, had been scheduled to go to arbitration on Wednesday.

USADA said in a statement that it withdrew the charges after receiving guidance from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). "USADA has determined that under the applicable rules, and in order to ensure that Coleman is treated consistently with other athletes under the World Anti-Doping Program, Coleman should not be considered to have three Whereabouts Failures in a 12-month period," the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said.

"Accordingly, USADA has withdrawn its charge that Coleman committed an anti-doping rule violation." The 23-year-old Coleman, the year's fastest man and 2017 world 100m silver medallist, could have been banned for up to two years and missed the world championships and 2020 Tokyo Olympics if the arbitration panel had upheld the charges.

Coleman was not immediately available to comment. "I am confident the upcoming hearing on September 4 will clear the matter and I will compete at the world championships in Doha this fall," he had said in a statement last week.