The Athletics Integrity Unit has revealed world 400m champion Salwa Eid Naser missed four anti-doping tests rather than the three she claimed.

The 22 year-old was provisionally suspended on Friday for breaching whereabouts rules.

She spoke on an Instagram live video a day later claiming she had 'only missed three tests' which she described as 'normal'.

“I don't want people to get confused in all this because I would never cheat. I've never been a cheat. I will never be,” she added. 

But the AIU has since confirmed that there was in fact a fourth ’whereabouts’ failure in 2020.

The Bahrain athlete was crowned 400m world champion in Doha late last year, and became the first ever Asian woman to win the event. 

The AIU said in a follow-up statement: "The investigation into Ms Naser's three whereabouts failures in 2019 was ongoing at the time of the Doha World Championships and she was not provisionally suspended at that time.

"Following conclusion of the investigation and a fourth whereabouts failure in January 2020, a notice of charge was issued and Ms Naser subject to an immediate provisional suspension.

"The disciplinary process is ongoing."

Failing to inform anti-doping officials of her whereabouts three times within 12 months can lead to a ban of up to two years from the sport. 

Two-time 400m Olympic champion Michael Johnson has called for the missed drug test issue to be 'dealt with'.

In a series of tweets he wrote: "The missed drug test issue must now be dealt with. Missing 3 tests in a year must result in a minimum 4 year ban and considered same as a positive test. Positive tests must result in minimum 4 year ban regardless of substance.

“She doesn’t appear to be too bothered by it all, which further begs the question, were the missed tests intentional? Another question I have is did they ever successfully test her out of competition over that year or did she miss all attempts to test her? Not that it matters!”