Is this the end for Jele?
Mbongeni Mguni | Friday October 19, 2018 14:41
Evidence led before the Athletics Integrity Unit shows that Jele took the banned steroid, Dianabol, last year in October.
At 28 years old, Jele has taken a potentially career-ending knock. She was part of the national team that represented Botswana at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and the IAAF World Championships London 2017. It was during these major competitions that the future shone brightest for the athlete.
For years, Jele had been ‘bubbling under’, her hard work overshadowed by the achievements of other elite athletes, particularly her 4 x 400 metre relay teammate and sprint icon, Amantle Montsho.
Prior to the Olympic Games and the IAAF World Championships, Jele’s greatest achievements were the All Africa Games (in 2015) and Africa Senior Championships (in 2012, 2014 and 2016), where she made a name for herself and began gaining local and international attention.
A 400-metre specialist, Jele broke onto the international scene in 2010 with a spot on the 4 x 400 metre women’s team representing Botswana at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India. The team finished sixth, but in the eyes of many, a star had been born.
The then 20-year old would see her career take flight, with increasingly improved performances all over the world, across varying races, from 100 metres, to 800 metres, although she would later concentrate on her beloved 400 metres.
Last August, Batswana were amongst the 400 million TV viewers who tuned into the IAAF World Championships, where Jele was one of the 11 athletes flying the country’s flag high.
On the last day of the Championships, Batswana locked their eyes on the 4 x 400 metre women’s relay final, where Jele lined up alongside the cream of elite women’s athletes, running the race that tests both endurance and speed the most.
And she ran her heart out, helping the team to seventh place in three minutes, 28 seconds, three seconds shy of third-placed Poland. The day before, in qualifying for the final, Jele had helped the team to a best of three minutes and 26 seconds.
Hardly two months after the triumphant return from London, Jele would make a fateful error when, according to her own evidence, she decided to sip water from a bottle that was contaminated by her husband’s steroids.
It is a decision that will haunt her for the rest of her life. The athlete underwent an out of competition test in which a urine sample was collected. She was subsequently charged with violations of the IAAF’s Anti-Doping Rules.
Jele told the Athletics Integrity Unit that she did not wish to have her B Sample analysed and last Thursday, a Jeffrey Benz-led panel slapped Jele with a four-year ban.
Coming back from that will be a mammoth task. She could follow the path of her teammate, Montsho, who was hit with a two-year ban for doping in 2014, but returned to win gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games held in Gold Coast, Australia.
Or she could follow the path of another sprint queen whose fall from grace eerily mirrors her own. Marion Jones had the world at her feet in the 2000s, winning everything on offer, before her career went down in a ball of flames after her husband helped her dope, then testified against her.
Marion was hit with a two-year ban in 2007, announced her retirement and was jailed in 2008 for six months for using steroids. She would later file for bankruptcy.
Jele’s fate is one that has similarly been shattered from within the home by her husband, Ofentse Jele, according to his own testimony before the anti-doping investigators.
Ofentse says he took various types of steroids, including injectables, to “bulk up” in the gym and his wife inadvertently got the substances in her body. Marion’s ex-husband, CJ, took steroids to help his shot-put career, but later shared with his wife, sealing both their fates.
For local athletics, the latest developments are a shock. Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) spokesperson, Ipolokeng Ramatshaba says athletes are always warned to watch what they consume. He is not sure what Jele’s options are.
“The ban is quite steep but there is nothing we can do. Normally the sentence depends on the substance that was found in an individual. She has the right to appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. It is
the only body that can reverse the sentence,”
Ramatshaba explains the difficult position BAA is in.
“We cannot be seen to be in her corner because that is against the rules. We do not want a repeat of what happened during the IAAF World Championships London 2017 when politicians threatened to sue IAAF,” Ramatshaba says.
For Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) chair, Solly Reikeletseng an increase in the numbers of doping cases is linked to Botswana being an emerging powerhouse.
“As a small country, such incidents affect us more. It is a big blow to us to lose somebody we have invested so much in. I hope this is a lesson and she will come back a better athlete.”
Jele’s “coming back”, however, is still a matter of speculation.