04 Mar 2018

Botswana National Olympic Committee chief executive officer, Tuelo Serufho says the country has recorded five cases of doping.

Speaking at a press briefing on March 2, Serufho said of the five, three were from athletics and two from rugby.

He said issues of anti-doping were a concern, not only to his organisation, but to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and International Olympic Committee (IOC).

“Perhaps as an illustration of how structures in sport take issues of doping seriously will be the manner in which both the IOC, WADA and Paralympics Association amongst other bodies handled the systematic doping issues in Russia,” he said.

Serufho said a lot of Russian athletes were banned from competing at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, adding that the few cleared at the winter Olympic Games held in Pyeongchang were not competing under the Russian flag.

Serufho said they had done a lot in educating athletes about the dangers of doping.

He said they also had an open invitation such that whenever national federations held training camps or competitions, they should invite Botswana National Anti-Doping Organisation (BONADO) to test and educate their athletes.

However, he said they were worried that despite the education, the country still had doping cases, adding that to date they had four completed cases and that athletes had been sanctioned.

One of the recent cases involves 400 metre runner, Lydia Jele. Serufho said the banned substance found on her sample was metandionone metabolite, and that it was an anabolic agents.

He said the case was still undergoing result management, adding that once completed they would be told of the outcome.

Serufho also said the issue regarding Isaac Makwala had been closed following reports that he did not corporate with the doping control team.

“The relevant anti-doping organisations have considered the matter and determined that Makwala does not have a case to answer,” he said. ENDS