Cape Town - Two top 10 finishers at this year’s Comrades Marathon could have their medals withdrawn after testing positive for banned substances.
Khalid Galant, chief executive of the SA Institute for Drug Free Sport, named the two as ninth-placed Sandile Ngunuza and sixth-placed Joseph Mphuthi.
The two long-distance runners find themselves at different stages of investigation, and will learn their fate after the final decisions of separate anti-doping hearings.
Mphuthi, from the small town of Frankfort in the Free State, ran this year’s Comrades despite being “provisionally suspended” for testing positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone at the Loskop ultra-marathon last year.
The steroid is on the prohibited list of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Galant said the 40-year-old athlete took part in the Comrades on May 31 after arguing that he had not yet been found guilty by a tribunal for using the steroid.
Anabolic steroids are normally used by athletes to build muscle.
Mphuthi finished the Comrades in sixth place in 5:54:29, 16 minutes behind the winner, Gift Kalehe.
On July 8, he appeared before the country’s anti-doping tribunal over the Loskop tests. The tribunal has not announced its findings.
Galant said if the tribunal found Mphuthi guilty, it would have to decide if he should return his Comrades gold.
Meanwhile,
Ngunuza will face a hearing by the same tribunal after both his A and B urine samples taken after the race tested positive for the banned stimulants oxilofrine and methylhexaneamine.
Ngunuza, 32, from Port Elizabeth, finished in ninth place in a time of 05:57:08, 19 minutes behind the winner.
Methylhexaneamine was the substance for which 2012 Comrades winner Ludwick Mamabolo tested positive at that time.
The anti-doping tribunal cleared him of all charges the following year, after uncovering irregularities in the testing process.
Weekend Argus