Doping scourge demands our attention

I WANTED to dedicate the entire column to Bafana Bafana, looking at their progress under Gordon Igesund but the shocking news of Tsholofelo Thipe swayed my attention from the national team.

Thipe, the country's versatile sprinter, has tested positive for a banned substance. She joins fellow sprinter Rapula Sefanyetso on the wall of shame, with Tuesday's shocking revelation bringing to 10 the number of athletes who failed drug tests this season. Horrifying stats!

We learnt that Thipe tested positive at the African Athletics Championships in Benin in June, while Sefanyetso tested positive at the Yellow Pages meeting in Pretoria in April.

The latest developments came barely four months after Ludwick Mamabolo failed a doping test after winning the gruelling Comrades Marathon in Durban in June.

His B-sample confirmed the presence of methylhexaneamine after his A-sample tested positive for the banned stimulant. The affable Limpopo marathoner, who still insists he is innocent, is facing a hearing.

Earlier on former world junior long jump champion Luvo Manyonga tested positive for methamphetamine, commonly known as tik, and that cost him a place in the SA team for the London Olympics. That was a blow for the country as the talented Manyonga was a sure bet for a medal in London.

Thipe's attorney Christian Krone said they will fight for the failed dope test.

The shocking increase in the number of our athletes found on the wrong side of doping laws has left Athletics South Africa gobsmacked. Its president, James Evans, believes we have some of the dumbest athletes.

"I don't know what is going on, but doping in South African athletics is becoming a serious problem," Evans was quoted as saying this week.

"To have 10 athletes testing positive in a season is just not acceptable. They know that they will be caught but they keep on using banned substances and making the same mistakes over and over again."

The question here is: do our athletes take these substances wittingly or otherwise?

This could be a tough one to answer because those who are implicated always argue that they were not aware that the supplements and substances they took were prohibited.

Evans said if the athletes have to buy any medication, they should first get an expert opinion.

But according to the ASA president athletes were advised at the IAAF World Junior Athletics Championship in Barcelona not to use any substances without understanding what they contained.

That's fair enough, Evans, but is ASA pulling out all the stops to arrest the increase in doping in the sport?

Evans mentioned a case of a pharmacist who sold an athlete medication containing a banned substance because he or she did not understand the athlete.

So how about ASA starting to engage as many pharmacists as possible in their quest to fight doping?

Engage them in your programme where workshops can be organised on a regular basis to make everybody involved know precisely which substances are banned and why. ASA should employ a relevant person, be it a coach or specialist doctor, whose sole responsibility would be to oversee the whole process of curbing this embarrassing scourge.

But our athletes also need to tread cautiously when they buy the substances. They must take responsibility for their actions and stop apportioning blame elsewhere.

They have their coaches who should know better. The coaches should take the initiative to seek advice from relevant institutions.

We can't continue to blame ASA and the SA Institute for Drug-Free Sport every time an athlete fails a dope test.

Surely, the two bodies would not encourage athletes to cheat. That would embarrass them because their main objective is to promote fair play in sport.

We hope our athletes will learn from their previous mistakes or ignorance and start afresh. Harsh disciplinary measures meted out to the culprits should serve as a lesson to would-be cheats.