Win for Bol as WADA changes policy
Aussie middle distance runner Peter Bol has had another major win, with the WorldAnti Doping Agency (WADA) agreeing that international drug testers should obtain a ‘second opinion’ before reporting positive tests for the banned blood booster EPO.
Although WADA stopped short of saying it had erred in its handling of Bol’s case, it has now issued fresh instructions to its affiliated anti-doping agencies on how to handle and report tests for EPO and EPO Receptor Agonists (ERAs).
The changes include recommendations on how to review and interpret results as well as a requirement to seek additional assessment on any adverse or atypical findings.
“This reflects efforts towards further improvement and harmonisation of laboratory-related anti-doping rules and activities,” WADA said.
Under intense pressure to review its testing procedures after serious questions were raised about their reliability, WADA last year ordered an in-depth investigation into EPO testing that took eight months to complete.
The results have now been revealed in a 38-page “technical document’ that has been sent to drug testers after being
approved by WADA’s executive committee.
The new procedures will come into effect from June 15 – six weeks before the start of the Paris Olympics.
In its review, WADA reiterated that its existing methods to detect EPO “remained valid” but revealed changes to ‘strengthen’ the processing and reporting of cases.
While WADA described the changes as “minor adjustments”, for any athlete wrongly accused of doping, they are life changing.
Innocent athletes have also been caught out because erythropoietin is a naturally occurring hormone produced by the kidneys.
Bol’s world was tipped upside down in early 2023 when he was informed he had returned a positive test for EPO.
Bol has always maintained his innocence. Dozens of his other samples came back negative or inconclusive and it later transpired that his positive sample was false.
He was completely exonerated of any wrongdoing.