Mmegi

Athletes turn tables on anti-doping office

Running into trouble: Nzamani
Running into trouble: Nzamani

As the war against doping continues in Botswana, athletes who tested positive for banned substances last year have now shifted the blame to the National Anti-Doping Office (NADO), accusing the body of sabotage and tampering with samples.

Lydia Jele, Ditiro Nzamani, and Pertunia Gaegopolwe were found guilty following tests conducted by the local testing authority. Jele’s husband, Ofentse Jele said the athlete's world came tumbling after she received a call from NADO director, Fredrick Seno, instructing her to check her email. Jele learnt that she had tested positive for Metabolites of Stanozol. Ofentse said they laughed at the results because "we were wondering what could have happened." "A sample had been taken from her, we knew the supplements we were taking, we had never changed supplements and that was our fourth test. She was clean in the other tests, so how could she now test positive? When she purchases supplements, I always accompany her to the pharmacy and on top of that, her supplements have a banned substance-free label. We went to Seno’s office, and during our conversation, his body language showed that he was not telling us the truth. We had trust in our anti-doping officer and never expected that they could do any harm to us,” he said. Ofentse said they also met with the manager-Africa Zone VI Anti-Doping Office (RADO), Andrew Kamanga, who suggested that probably they changed supplements.

He urged them to request CCTV video footage from the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) gym, which would be able to exonerate Jele. Ofentse explained that they have attempted to secure the footage from BNSC without luck since last year. “Lydia was tested on June 17 and results came out on July 23 and she was notified on August 5. That is another thing that we asked Seno as to why there was a delay. She was not given an opportunity to respond before the results were publicised. In the first case, Lydia was given 20 days to respond to the results but that was not the case now,” he said. He said samples were collected from his wife at night during national team camp, which was a surprise, adding that the other four athletes she was with at camp have never been tested. Ofentse said when he asks questions, the officers get defensive but he is only trying to get to the bottom of the matter. “In the NADO testing pool, people who test should be rotated but we have realised that all the positive tests are those collected by one individual. We wonder why that person is always present in all these cases, this makes us suspicious. What also made us uncomfortable was that they were pushing us to sign an admission (of guilt) form. In all this, the Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) has never contacted Lydia but she has worked hard for this country,” he said.

Editor's Comment
UDC's 100 Days: Please deliver your promises!

We duly congratulate them to have ousted the long ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) from power. Prior to taking power from the BDP, the coalition had made several election promises that are credited for influencing change and swaying the people to vote in its favour.The party had made an undertaking, which its leader and President Duma Boko consistently bellowed in his campaign trail. These undertakings were promises that Batswana would be...

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