Mphuti keeps Comrades medal despite suspension

File Photo: AFP

File Photo: AFP

Published Apr 5, 2016

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Despite running while provisionally suspended, Joseph Mphuti will get to keep his 2015 Comrades Marathon gold medal and will finally start serving his two-year ban with immediate effect, the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) announced yesterday.

Mphuti ran last year’s Comrades even though he was provisionally suspended for testing positive for the anabolic steroid Nandrolone at the Loskop ultra-marathon in 2014.

He finished sixth at Comrades and appeared in front of an independent Anti-Doping Tribunal hearing on July 8 and was subsequently cleared.

The SA Institute for Drug-Free Sport (Saids) appealed the decision which was upheld with Mphuti finally serving his ban.”We appealed against the original decision because he competed during the provisional sanction and the appeal was upheld, so the start of the sanction was changed to a later date,” said Saids chief executive Khalid Galant. “We appealed against the start of the ban because he competed during that provisional suspension.”

Meanwhile, the CMA also confirmed the suspension of Sandile Ngunuza, who finished in ninth place at last year’s Comrades.

Traces of Oxilofrine and Methylhexanamine was found in Ngunuza’s urine sample taken at the Comrades. Vasily Larkin of Russia moves up to 10th place. - The Star

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