Star runner Peter Bol has sensationally cut all contact with Athletics Australia just before the start of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest this weekend.
Bol was banned from competition earlier this year after appearing to fail a drug test, but was sensationally cleared and reinstated last month when his result was revealed to be a false positive.
Sport Integrity Australia stated it would not make progress on an anti-doping rule violation and earlier this month closed its investigation into his false positive test for synthetic EPO.
AA has repeatedly approached Bol and his management team to discuss the matter, but the second-fastest 800m runner in Australian history has refused to speak to them.
He feels that the governing body has led him on and has accused AA of leaking the initial false positive result to the media, although this has never been confirmed.
Peter Bol (pictured) has accused governing body Athletics Australia of leaking his false positive drug test result to the world media
Bol (pictured, front), who finished fourth in the Tokyo Olympics final and second in last year’s Commonwealth Games, is now in Budapest for the World Championships
But Bol, the Commonwealth Games silver medalist over 800 metres, remains bitter about how the organization handled the leak of the false-positive EPO test in January.
He maintained his innocence and looked on as a sponsor after sponsor failed him, but was fully acquitted on August 1.
The stress of trying to clear his name has left Bol struggling emotionally for the past year.
When he was allowed to train on a track again in March, he fell far behind everyone else, including his best friend and training partner Joseph Deng, who has also been selected to run the 800m for Australia.
The pair have agreed to sleep together in Budapest at an Athletics Australia property, but that hasn’t stopped Bol from talking to the top body.
Justin Rinaldi, Bol and Deng’s coach, supports his athlete’s point of view.
“We don’t want to put Pete in a situation where he walks into an Australian team and doesn’t feel comfortable, so we just need to see how we fix that,” Rinaldi told the club. Herald Sun.
“I want him to be part of the team, the athletes on the team love Pete, they genuinely support him, so I think it’s good to have that support around him.
“I just hope they (Athletics Australia) learn from this and handle it differently if it ever happens to another athlete again.”
Most of Bol’s bitterness is directed at AA chief executive Peter Bromley, whom he blames for letting the news of the original false positive get to the media and then not supporting him when the news broke.
NSW’s ever-bubbly Jessica Hull will face the world’s greatest distance star, Faith Kipyegon, in both the 1500m and 5000m races for the world titles
Bromley and AA chairman Jan Swinhoe have both reached out to Bol’s manager James Templeton in recent weeks and sent messages of support.
“Peter Bol has been stuck in a very difficult and damaging no man’s land for the past seven months,” Bromley said.
“He, and every other elite athlete, deserves clear and transparent answers to explain what went wrong and what is being done to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Bol, who finished fourth in the final of the 800 meters of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, kicks off his campaign in Budapest on Wednesday morning in the heats.
Meanwhile, Aussie star Jessica Hull is ready for action.
When Kipyegon broke the world record for the mile last month, Hull was in the field and congratulated her on the stunning achievement
The amazing Kipyegon holds both the 1500m and 5000m world records
Hull holds more Australian track records than any athlete on the team and is in rare form.
She will contest both the 1500m and 5000m but will face a behemoth of the sport in both races.
Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon is the fierce odds-on favorite to do the 1500m-5000m double in the world titles, having broken world records in both events – along with the mile – in a remarkable seven-week span earlier this year.
Hull, who has 103,000 followers on Instagram alone, was in the field in Florence on June 2 when Kipyegon became the first woman to break the 3:50 barrier in the 1500m, and was also there when the Kenyan crossed the world border with lowered by one mile, with the Australian dragged a few seconds behind to set a national record.
Australia’s Linden Hall, who once again takes control of the Australian 1500 meters after a stunning run in Europe in July, will also be competing.
But it was Hull who addressed the press in Budapest on Friday when asked about the seemingly immovable object that is Kipyegon.
“It’s incredible what Faith is doing but we all have to try, we can’t just let her run away with it, although as the athlete she is now the reality is she will run away with it,” she said. .
Australia’s national record holder in the 1500 meters Linden Hall (right) will also race against Hull and the great Kipyegon at the World Cup this weekend
“I think what you’re starting to see from people like Laura Muir, Cory Magee and myself and definitely the Ethiopian women is that we’re not afraid to try even if it means our last 400 is pretty rough and pretty painful . and not very glamorous.
“Championship racing is very different and we haven’t seen Faith race tactically in a long time; she’s always been in the front so I think she’ll run like that here too.
“But anything can happen in a championship with the tactics involved.”
In addition to holding those world records, the Kenyan is also a double Olympic gold medalist, proving she can handle championship races.
Hull find themselves in the final of four 1500m heats on the first day of the championships, with the top six runners from each race advancing to the semi-finals.
Silent achiever Hall and current Birmingham Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Abbey Caldwell will also be racing in the 1500m heats on Saturday.