Rugby schoolboys test positive for steroids

CAPE TOWN – Doping control tests have revealed that schoolboys as young as 17 years old participating in the recent Craven Week schools’ rugby tournament have tested positive for anabolic steroids and could face bans of up to two years from sport.

This is according to Khalid Galant, CEO of the Institute for Drug-Free Sport, which has obtained the results of their drug tests carried out on 47 per cent of participants during the schools’ rugby tournament at the end of June.Galant says that four boys tested positive for the banned steroids. ‘Out of the four positives, two results also showed high levels of testosterone and these tests have been sent off for further analysis to Germany to verify whether the levels of testosterone are due to external sources, or naturally produced by the body,’ he said. ‘Only if the tests confirm that indeed the source of testosterone is from outside of the athlete’s body, will a doping case be opened.’He says that one positive result is a lot, therefore four positives translates into an 8,5 per cent positive result, which is a serious cause for concern. He also stresses that even though the other the majority of athletes ‘competed clean’ this does not mean that they are not doping as some of them may have stopped taking steroids weeks before the competition, in order to pass the drug tests during the tournament. – Nampa-Sapa