Aussie Olympian Peter Bol is ‘fully exonerated’ after being branded a drug kingpin – as major test result error is revealed
- Positive result returned for EPO in January
- Has always maintained his innocence
- New development ‘a dream come true’
Australian Olympian Peter Bol has been officially cleared after Sport Integrity Australia declared it would not make progress on an anti-doping rule violation and closed its investigation into his false positive for synthetic EPO.
In January, the 28-year-old was shocked to learn he had a positive finding for EPO and was suspended from athletics, turning his life into chaos.
Bol proclaimed his innocence and a subsequent independent analysis of the athlete’s B sample returned an atypical finding or a false positive.
Sport Integrity Australia continued to investigate Bol, but retested samples before finally deciding on Tuesday to close its case, freeing him to take a year off from the Paris Olympics.
Bol posted a message on social media on Tuesday morning in which he revealed the good news.
‘I’ve been acquitted. It was a false positive as I’ve been saying all along! The news from Sport Integrity Australia today was a dream come true.
Bol (pictured after winning silver in the 800m final at the 2022 Commonwealth Games) described his exemption as ‘a dream come true’
“I am pleased that WADA has agreed to review the EPO testing process to prevent future false positives. No one should ever have to go through what I went through this year.
My focus is now on the upcoming World Athletics Championships in Hungary. I’m in shape and I feel good.’
A statement from Sport Integrity Australia revealed that they had used several laboratories and several experts from the World Anti Doping Authority to analyze Bol’s A and B blood samples.
They felt the A sample should have been negative.
“The further analysis resulted in differing expert opinions on whether the sample was reported positive or negative, and the A sample was reported as negative,” the SIA statement said.
The 28-year-old (pictured at the 2020 Olympics) has sparked a review of how athletes are tested for the performance-enhancing drug EPO
As a result, Sport Integrity Australia has taken the decision not to commit an anti-doping rule violation for this monster. The investigation into this sample has been completed.’
The World Anti-Doping Agency acknowledged Sport Integrity Australia’s announcement and vowed to “review current EPO processes” following Bol’s nightmare.
“While we have no reason to question the validity of the analytical method used for recombinant EPO, WADA will review the current review process in light of the particulars of this case,” said a statement from WADA.
Bol, who finished fourth in the 800m final at the Tokyo Olympics, has returned to running in Europe ahead of the Paris Olympics.