NAMIBIAN rugby player Arthur Bouwer has been banned for four years by World Rugby (WR) after testing positive for an anabolic steroid in June this year.
The Namibia Rugby Union (NRU) recently shared the findings of an investigation conducted by WR into the matter, which was published at the end of October.
According to the findings of WR’s investigation, Bouwer tested positive for an anabolic steroid called Turinabol on 15 June 2016 in Bucharest, Romania, where he was representing Namibia at the Nations Cup.
In the investigation by WR’s judicial committee, it came to light that Bouwer had received two tablets of the drug while on holiday in Europe in October 2015 from another tourist called Antonio.
“Bouwer stated ‘Antonio’ informed him he had played American football in Miami and because they were both ‘into fitness’, he took the two capsules together with some other (legal) supplements ‘as an experiment.’ The ‘combo’ as he called it was successful in that he felt ‘energised’ and approximately a week later, at the end of the trip ‘Antonio’ gave him two more tablets to take home,” World Rugby’s investigation stated.
Towards the end of May, Bouwer took the same ‘combo’ and on 15 June he tested positive for the prohibited substance in Bucharest.
During World Rugby’s investigation, Bouwer admitted that he had been negligent, but denied that he had intentionally taken a prohibited substance.
Because of his reckless conduct, he apologised to the NRU, his country, his fellow players and coaches, and World Rugby.
In their investigation, World Rugby, however, came to the conclusion that Bouwer had failed to prove that his ingestion of the substance was unintentional, and that his conduct was reckless.
“Bouwer impressed us as a genuine young man who clearly regretted his reckless conduct. We also accept his commendable aspiration for rugby to be a ‘clean and fair sport,” the investigation stated.
“However, despite these positive factors, given our factual findings in relation to the circumstances surrounding the anti-doping violation, we have no alternative but to impose the mandatory sanction,” it added.
World Rugby therefore imposed a sanction of four years, commencing on 12 July 2016 and concluding on 11 July 2020.
The 26-year-old Bouwer has represented Namibian in 15 Test matches, and has also been a regular member of the Welwitschias team in the Vodacom Cup and Currie Cup qualifying series.
