Two athletes test positive to banned substances
Calistus Kolantsho | Tuesday July 9, 2024 09:33
The outcomes come a few weeks before the start of the Paris 2024 Olympics with athletics event kicking off on August 1. The two cases, which involve a male and female runners bring the number of active cases in athletics to five. An effort to speak to the National Anti-Doping Coordinator (NADO), Fredrik Seno, was fruitless as his phone rung answered. The Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) vice president-administration, Oabona Theetso, told SportMonitor that he was not aware of the new cases. He said despite all the anti-doping workshops that they conduct, it is disappointing to be still getting positive tests. He raised concern that it seems athletes are not taking the workshops seriously because some of them do not even attend the entire session.
Meanwhile, following a vote by the executive committee, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has, with immediate effect, removed the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Angola (acting as the National Anti-Doping Organisation, NADO) from the list of signatories that do not comply with the World Anti-Doping Code. Angola is in the same region with Botswana, which is Africa Zone IV. According to a statement from WADA, the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Angola's non-compliance was the result of its failure to fully implement the 2021 version of the World Anti-Doping Code into the national legal system. On January 23, 2024, WADA sent the NOC of Angola a formal notice of non-compliance. “This non-compliance became effective on 14 February 2024 after the NOC of Angola chose not to contest the allegation as it could have done under Article 9.3.1 of the International Standard for Code Compliance by Signatories. Subsequently, WADA ruled that Angola could not use national symbols such as the anthem and flag due to delays in the approval of the country's anti-doping law. The sanction then included the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The Angolan NOC was sanctioned for failing to meet deadlines to bring its sports legislation into line with the statutes of this international body,” the statement reads. The document also stated that the country would lose the privileges guaranteed by the organisation until it was reinstated, as well as the impossibility of Angolan representatives being eligible for any position within WADA. It came five months before the start of the Paris Olympics.