Road runner Gladys Lukhwareni did not know a substance she had injected herself with to recover from an injury was a banned steroid, she said on Wednesday.
”I don’t know anything about drugs. I had an injury and another runner from my club [Harmony Athletic Club] told me to give him R1 000 and he would get me medicine to help the injury,” Lukhwareni told journalists in Pretoria.
She tested positive for the steroid earlier this year after the Spar Ladies Race.
Harmony manager Nick Bester said an Athletics South Africa (ASA) tribunal found Lukhwareni guilty of having used the steroid, but that her sentence might be reduced because of the unique circumstances.
He said the tribunal will announce Lukhwareni’s sentence sometime next week.
The mandatory sentence for drug offences in sport in South Africa is a ban from competitions for two years.
Bester said weeks after Lukhwareni tested positive, a further three Harmony athletes — Edward Kgosumang, Merriam Mooki and Maxwell Zungu — tested positive for the same substance.
This alerted ASA and the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport to a possible drugs syndicate targeting athletes. The organisations then took immediate action.
”After the three others tested positive, we trapped the chemist that supplied the steroids,” said Bester.
He said the Pretoria West chemist was trapped selling the steroid to the same athlete who had allegedly supplied Lukhwareni with it. The athlete concerned cannot yet be named, he said.
Bester emphasised that with the exception of Lukhwareni, the athletes who tested positive for the substance are not Harmony’s top performers.
”Harmony is an open club and we cannot stop anyone from joining.
”The athletes who tested positive are not our top athletes. We have budgeted R75 000 to test our top 50 athletes for banned substances.”
Bester said the three who tested positive have ”strong links” to the Department of Correctional Services.
”Two of them are working for correctional services and one of them lives on the premises,” he said.
Bester expressed sorrow at what he called the abuse of Lukhwareni’s innocence.
”Gladys was well on her way to become one of South Africa’s best athletes and it is sorrowful that people abused her innocence and in the process not only destroyed her future in the sport, but also took away her livelihood.” — Sapa