Athletes turn tables on anti-doping office
Calistus Kolantsho | Saturday January 18, 2025 06:00
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.
Ofentse said they suspect that Jele’s drink was tampered with because a week before travelling to the African Athletics Championships in Cameroon, her face and legs were swollen. He said they would not sign the admission form instead, they would rather wait for a hearing. He mentioned that a preliminary hearing was held in December after an arbitrator was brought in from Zimbabwe, with submissions made, but since then NADO has been quiet. Ofentse said BAA should be supporting Lydia in finding the person who spiked her drink because the same culprit is still around. The athlete was provisionally suspended in August. The athlete, through a Facebook post, said that she is always careful with what she drinks or eats. In the current incident, it was something that was carefully planned and she is suspicious it was done by people close to her. “It does not make sense why I would risk and take such a substance knowing that I am going for a championship and knowing that we are always tested before we leave for a competition,” Jele said.
Responding to allegations levelled against his office, Seno challenged Ofentse to prove the claims he had made. For his part, Nzamani said he was shocked because after testing in February, the results came out in July, which was a long time. He said it has never happened before for results to take such a long time before they are released. “It seems like they were ready in July, but I opened my email in August after being asked to do that by Seno. I am still wondering what is happening. But there is nothing that I can do about it. I was instructed that if I sign an admission form, they will reduce my ban by one year, and I will only be suspended for three years. The other condition was that if I sign I will not go for a hearing. I did not have a choice and I also wanted to avoid going for a hearing because I knew I would not win. I was really stressed,” he said. The 25-year-old's suspension runs from February 17, 2024, to February 16, 2027. He said it did not make sense for the sample to be found in his urine sample whilst the blood sample was clean.
Meanwhile, Gaegopolwe was also left asking questions after her positive test results. “I felt that it was a set-up because it was during a point when we were fighting for a slot in the relay team. What also surprised me was that one coach knew about my results before I did. I do not know how. But there were some instances where I drank some drinks from my friends. Maybe that is where the problem came from. On the day I was tested, I took painkillers because of flu and I was to compete. It was our last race to qualify for World Relays and I clocked a better time,” she said. Gaegopolwe said when she was supposed to join the team, she was told that she could not go.
She said afterwards her name was missing from the start list, which was a surprise. “I suspect that the drink was spiked. The main lesson is to never trust anybody in athletics. There is a lot of fighting for team selection; when athletes want something, they do anything to get in. My life is now a mess. I have nothing to do because all along my life has been all about athletics. I am not allowed into the stadium or the BNSC gym. It hurts but there is nothing I can do, but accept the situation. When I arrived at the NADO office, I was told to sign the admission form to avoid going for a hearing because my chances of winning at that stage were slim. I was alone, they convinced me that they could reduce my suspension from four years to three years. I will be back in 2027 at the age of 25,” Gaegopolwe said.