Decline in doping tests during pandemic 'a gift' to drugs cheats, warns British athlete

Bosworth fears drugs cheats will look to take advanatge of a lack of testing
REUTERS

British racewalker Tom Bosworth believes that the lack of testing during the coronavirus shutdown is a “gift” to drugs cheats.

Social distancing measures and global travel restrictions are significantly impacting the World Anti-Doping Agency’s ability to perform its usual out-of-competition tests, and with professional sport suspended in many key athletics countries, athletes are not being tested at meetings either.

The organisation’s president Witold Banka was last week forced to warn athletes that anyone looking to take advantage would be caught, but Bosworth, who won silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, fears that is an empty threat.

“It is such a blatantly obvious advantage,” he told The Times. “To those who see sport just as a way of winning at all costs and making money, this is a gift.

In Pictures | Every major sporting event affected by coronavirus

1/30

“It’s a really bleak outlook, you can get huge gains in a two to three month period where you know you will not be tested.”

As well as providing a perceived window of opportunity for those trying to gain an unfair advantage, the coronavirus outbreak has also provided a lifeline for athletes who had been ruled out of the Tokyo Olympics because of doping violations, but will now be eligible to compete if their bans expire before next summer’s rearranged Games.

Banka himself acknowledged the issue, but insisted that from a legal perspective his organisation was powerless, with bans dished out based on time periods, rather than competition schedules.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in