Meyer drops doping accusation defence
October 09, 2003 Edition -1
By Mark Beer
Elana Meyer yesterday gave up trying to clear her doping-tainted name because of financial and other reasons.
By doing so, South Africa's most experienced and successful woman athlete, who turns 37 tomorrow, has placed her participation in next year's Athens Olympics - which would be her fourth consecutive Olympiad - in doubt.
It was announced on May 7 that Meyer had tested positive for abnormal levels of the illegal stimulant caffeine in a sample taken after she had won a 10km race in Bali, Indonesia, earlier in the year.
She was summoned to appear at an Athletics South Africa (ASA) tribunal hearing on June 12, but no finality was reached and the continuation date was set for August 14.
Meyer then asked for a postponement to enable her to fulfil racing commitments in the US, as well as to give her more time to gather evidence to prove her innocence, and ASA temporarily lifted her suspension.
The continuation of the hearing was to have taken place at ASA headquarters in Johannesburg yesterday, but Meyer informed ASA that she would not be taking the matter further.
What this effectively means, according to ASA, is that Meyer has admitted a doping offence.
And, according to National Olympic Commit-tee (Nocsa) rules, any athlete found guilty of a doping offence automatically becomes ineligible for the following Olympics.
In the meantime, 1992 Barcelona Olympics 10 000m silver medallist and current world half-marathon record holder Meyer can now go about her business.
She escaped with a warning, but no ban, which is in line with the IAAF and International Olympic Com-mittee's regulations for first-time stimulant offenders.
"It has been very important for me to prove that this test is incorrect. But the cost and duration of proving this, as well as recent other developments, have forced me to reconsider. . . . it is not worth wasting more time and resources pursuing it any further," said Meyer in a statement issued by her husband and manager, Michael Meyer.
"Other developments" referred to caffeine being removed from the list of banned stimulants by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) last month.
"My main concern was that I did not know where the caffeine came from that was found in my sample, if indeed the test was accurate," she said.
Apart from the warning, Meyer forfeits all prize money, appearance fees, medals and other prizes she won at the event in Bali.
