The 25-year-old is the world record-holder in the indoor 3,000m and the European record-holder in the outdoor 5,000m.

He won silver in the 5,000m at the World Athletics Championships last year in Budapest, and bronze in the 1,500m at the Worlds in Eugene, Oregon, a year earlier.

Katir will appeal the sanction, the Spaniard said in a statement.

“I consider that there is no violation arising from three location failures in the last 12 months,” Katir said.

“In some of the location failures reported by the AIU, I was available at the place, date and time provided by me.”

Katir said he has been subjected to a large number of out-of-competition doping tests of both urine and blood samples over the past few months “without the slightest problem on my part”.

“It is important to keep in mind that we are not dealing with a case of violating doping rules for the use of prohibited substances or methods, or even for evading out-of-competition doping controls,” Katir’s statement added.

“This is a simple file derived from the completion of location data on the (platform athletes use to report their whereabouts) that could generate location errors.”

Athletes must log their whereabouts in order to undergo unannounced out-of-competition tests.

Three strikes result in a whereabouts violation.