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Marathon runner banned twice after being allowed to race during his first banning
Another doping bungle has again put the national anti-doping agency, the SA Institute for Drug-Free Sport (Saids), on the spot.
In a bizarre domestic athletics doping case, Comrades Marathon runner Joseph Mphuthi was this week banned for a second time, having been initially sanctioned by Saids last year for a 2014 failed drugs test. A top-10 finisher at last year’s Comrades, Mphuthi (sixth) and Sandile Ngunuza, who placed ninth at the same race, were this week handed two-year bans by the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA), with immediate effect.
But it has now emerged through the findings of Saids’ appeal tribunal that the anti-doping agency’s own disciplinary committee erred in its interpretation of the “ineligibility period” after Mphuthi tested positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone at the Loskop Marathon in April 2014. It also turned out that there was a delay in notifying the runner of his urine-test result, hence Mphuthi continued to race while under provisional suspension.
The 39-year-old is adamant the testing process was flawed and he also claims his samples could have been tampered with en route to the test laboratory in Bloemfontein.
“I really feel hard done by, since I could not afford a lawyer to represent me in this case; the whole process was unfair,” said Mphuthi, who came second at the 50km Loskop race at the time of his testing.
The Sibanye Gold Beatrix Mine Athletic Club member added: “The decision to ban me left me with more questions than answers. I don’t believe those results could be mine, since I learnt the samples had an overnight stopover at someone’s place on the way to the laboratory.
“Then I read about my results on social media when [the outcome] was supposed to be confidential and addressed to me. And why is Saids challenging their own decision?”
The CMA said Mphuthi would retain his prize for his sixth placing at last year’s up run.
“Why am I being allowed to keep my prize when I am banned?” asked the veteran runner, who hails from Frankfort in the Free State.
Comrades race director Rowyn James said: “Athletics SA and Saids instructed us to pay his R35 000 prize money and gold medal. We have acted on that instruction.”
Before this week’s announcement by the CMA, Mphuthi was already listed by the International Association of Athletics Federations among South African athletes serving bans for anti-doping violations.
His two-year ban was due to lapse tomorrow.
Saids chief executive Khalid Galant said: “Every athlete we catch feels ‘hard done by’. As you know, we implement the rules of sport without fear or favour.”
According to the findings of a hearing held in Rosebank on February 11, the panel – chaired by Raymond Hack – “unanimously concluded that the disciplinary committee had erred in its interpretation of article 10.9 of the Saids anti-doping rules, namely the commencement of the ineligibility period, wherein they found that the period should be operative from the date of the sample collection, and not the date of the hearing”.
This is the second time Saids’ anti-doping control procedure has been questioned.
Three years ago, 2012 Comrades champion Ludwick Mamabolo won a landmark case against the anti-doping body following a legal battle that lasted for nearly 11 months.
He initially tested positive for stimulant methylhexaneamine, but his legal team – who represented him pro bono – argued that Saids’ testing procedure was flawed and that the runner’s rights had been infringed. As a result, the positive test outcome was nullified, with Saids later admitting to its shortcomings.
The CMA warned that it reserved the right to request Saids to implement blood tests as opposed to urine tests at this year’s Comrades on May 29.
