Tokyo Olympics star and Australian Athletics poster boy Peter Bol has vowed to clear his identify and warranted his followers he’s harmless after testing positive to a performance enhancing drug.
Athletics Australia has confirmed that Bol, the quickest Australian over 800 metres in historical past, returned a positive A pattern to performance enhancing drug EPO and can now face a nervous look forward to the outcomes of the B pattern.
Australian middle-distance champion Peter Bol has examined positive to the performance enhancing drug EPO
The assertion that Bol launched on Twitter protesting his innocence. Bol has surrendered his cell phone and laptop computer and requested for 2 B Sample tests to be accomplished
He has been provisionally suspended till these outcomes are made clear.
Bol took to social media on Friday afternoon to protest his innocence.
‘It is critically necessary to convey with the strongest conviction that I’m harmless and haven’t taken this substabce as I’m accused,’ he posted.
‘I ask that everybody in Australia imagine me and let the method play out.
‘When I discovered final week that the A Sample from a urine take a look at tackle 11 October had examined positive for artificial EPO I used to be in complete shock.
‘To be clear, I’ve NEVER in my life bought, researched, possessed, administered, or used artificial EPO or every other Prohibited Substance.’
Bol competes on the Commonwealth Games the place he shot to prominence earlier than his giant-slaying performances on the Tokyo Olympics
Bol famously completed simply in need of turning into Australia’s first ever medalist within the 800m on the Tokyo Olympics, ending fourth within the last.
The positive end result has despatched shockwaves via the Australian Athletics neighborhood as Bol has been a narrative of inspiration and rising above adversity since his enormous show in Tokyo.
He grew to become a family identify when he surged to the entrance to lead all runners to victory within the semi-final earlier than narrowly lacking out on the bronze medal.
Bol has voluntarily handed over his telephone and laptop computer to investigators whereas his oach Justin Rinaldi and agent James Templeton have additionally supplied to give up their gadgets.
‘I’ve requested that the evaluation of my B Sample which is able to happen in February,’ Bol posted.
‘Given the subjective nature of decoding this sort of take a look at, I’ve requested that the lab carry out a secondary affirmation.
‘Above all, I stay hopeful that the method will exonerate me.
Bol grew to become an in a single day celeb after his barnstorming run within the Tokyo Olympics 800m semi-final earlier than falling agonisingly brief within the last
Bol’s household cheer him from again house in Perth, Australia because the younger middle-distance runner made nationwide historical past on the Olympics
‘My profession, hopes and desires are actually hanging within the stability over these subsequent few weeks, and I ask everybody to respect my privateness as I stay provisionally suspended.’
Born in Sudan, Bol’s household emigrated to Egypt earlier than gaining humanitarian standing via the UNHCR, first arriving in Toowoomba, earlier than settling in Perth.
A gifted basketball participant, Bol did not even begin athletics till he was 16 however rapidly shot via the ranks.
Athletics Australia chief government officer Peter Bromley stated the positive end result was ‘extraordinarily regarding’.
‘There are procedural equity and investigative consideration that constrain how a lot we will say, and at this level it will be inappropriate for Athletics Australia or anybody else to speculate in regards to the particular particulars or pre-empt any consequence,’ he stated.
‘However what we will say is that studying about this antagonistic analytical discovering was each extraordinarily regarding and fully out of the blue, and we are going to assist Sport Integrity Australia who’re main the investigation into the matter
The medication scandal will possible have an effect on Bol’s potential choice as Young Australian of the Year subsequent Thursday.
Bol reacts after ending in first place in the course of the second warmth of the boys’s 800m Round 1 athletics occasion on the Alexander Stadium on the Birmingham Commonwealth Games
He had been awarded Western Australia’s Young Australian of the Year for his work as a coach, mentor, keynote speaker, and philanthropist.
The medication scandal will possible have an effect on Bol’s potential choice as Young Australian of the Year subsequent Thursday.
He had been awarded Western Australia’s Young Australian of the Year for his work as a coach, mentor, keynote speaker, and philanthropist.