In the midst of the shock wave that rocked the athletics fraternity last week, Comrades Marathon champion Claude Moshiywa is as cool as a cucumber.
The long distance runner’s impending drugs test result from the Comrades is due to be out in the next two weeks, but the 38-year-old has no doubts about the outcome of his results.
“I am confident that my test results will come back negative. I have been racing for many years and I haven’t had any problems.
“I am not even worried about the results, because I have taken the measures that ensures me I’ll be alright,” said the Seshego-born runner. The first South African winner of the Comrades “up run” in 21 years said he has never used performance enhancing substances.
“When I prepare for races I use clean substances. And I am very careful about that. many athletes are not educated about these things. It’s something that I take very seriously.”
Last week a storm hit international athletics when Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell tested positive for banned substances.
And in light of the fact inevitably all eyes are set to turn towards Moshiywa, to see whether or not his test sample comes back clean. The South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport (Saids), have noted a rise in the level of interest from the public and media in this year’s Comrades drugs test results.
The anti-doping organisation is under scrutiny and pressure to rectify the wrongs of the 2012 Comrades where irregularities in the testing led to an embarrassing series of events.
Saids doping control manager Fahmy Galant said tougher and more stringent measures were put in place to ensure that last year’s shambles weren’t repeated. The interest is specifically heightened by the infamous saga where last year’s Comrades winner Ludwick Mamabolo, allegedly tested positive for a banned substance.
“There definitely has been more awareness and interest with the results. The interest this year has been bigger than normal and unusually high. Better methods were implemented in the way we conduct tests on the runners for this year’s race. Obviously we had some deficiencies last year and we had to change the way we perform test on the runners,” said Galant.
“We (Saids) trained the testing personnel from scratch. At each doping station we made sure that they knew what to do and how to deal with the athletes at each doping station.”
Gallant said the test results of all the runners who competed at Comrades are due to be released by the first week of August at the latest.