Olympic kayaker spikes opponent's drink with Dianabol

[StyrbjornSterki]

Kayaker spiked rival’s drink in attempt to win Olympic spot

By SHINICHI CHUBACHI/ Staff Writer
January 9, 2018 at 16:45 JST

A kayaker desperate to make the Olympic team spiked a water bottle of a rival with a banned substance at the 2017 Canoe Sprint Japan Championships.

As a result, the victim failed a doping test and was disqualified. However, the disqualification was nullified on Jan. 9 after the scandal came to light.

“I wanted to be in the kayak four in the Tokyo Olympic Games, but I was ranked fifth with a younger kayaker higher than me. If this continued, I knew I would fail to qualify for the Olympics so I put in (the banned drug),” Yasuhiro Suzuki, 32, was quoted by a source as saying.

After committing the sneaky "crime," Suzuki, who has never competed at the Olympic level, became wracked with guilt. He confessed to the Japan Canoe Federation and apologized to rival Seiji Komatsu.

Suzuki put the banned anabolic agent, a muscle-building substance, into a water bottle belonging to the 25-year-old Komatsu on Sept. 11, during the kayak single 200 meters event in the Japan Championships in Ishikawa Prefecture.

The previous day, Suzuki performed poorly in the kayak single 500 meters event on Sept. 10. His aim was to finish high enough in the event to make the kayak four 500-meter team for the Tokyo Olympics.

Suzuki's dastardly act was announced by canoe federation director Osahiro Haruzono on Jan. 9.

“We apologize for causing trouble, not only to canoe athletes but also to those of all other sports,” he said.

Suzuki bought the anabolic agent through an online shopping website.

When Komatsu came up positive in the doping test, he was temporarily disqualified despite denying he had taken a banned drug.

On Jan. 9, the Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA) announced it will ban Suzuki from competition for eight years. It also nullified Komatsu's disqualification.

Suzuki had retired previously after missing out on the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. However, his wife and friends urged him to try again and he resumed kayaking.

Both kayakers represented Japan at the 2017 Canoe Sprint World Championships, held in the Czech Republic.

“If it is a fact, it is extremely regrettable. It is the kind of thing that has never been heard of in Japan’s sporting history," said Daichi Suzuki, commissioner of the government’s Japan Sports Agency. "It's the first time I have heard of such a malicious case.”

Other sources identify the anabolic steroid as methandienone, a pharmaceutical name for the oral steroid Dianabol.

 

[Robert5091]

Yep, methandienone according to
https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/sp...cer-banned-8-years-for-spiking-drink-of-rival

 

[70kmph]

Tonya Harding...

 

[Merckx index]

I hope in an investigation like this, they ask the confessed perp how much of the substance he put in the water bottle, and try to determine if that amount is consistent with the level detected in the target. Because otherwise, any athlete testing positive could get off if someone was willing to take the fall for him. And it wouldn't have to be someone with something to lose, e.g., it could be some fan of his, who didn't really spike the water bottle, but said he did so that his favorite athlete could get off. Would the fan be subject to civil penalties? I don't know.

E.g., suppose some Sky fan "confesses" to spiking Froome's water bottle. Would WADA/UCI accept that confession immediately, and close the case, or would they dig more deeply? I remember when those lab samples of LA reported by L'Equipe turned up positive for EPO, there was speculation that they could have been spiked, until Ashenden, I think it was, showed how difficult it would be to put in the right amount to give the test results.

 

[Teddy Boom]

Re:

Tonya Harding...

Nah, more like Carl Lewis.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re: Re:

Tonya Harding...

Nah, more like Carl Lewis.

That's a 7 year old article that really doesn't help his credibility.

Anyway, Johnson claims Carl Lewis' friend Andre Jackson was in the doping control room, handing him spiked beer. But surely a random person couldn't possibly have gotten into the control room to drink beer with Johnson. It's ludicrous. If there was photographic evidence of it, then it might be believable

Eventually Lewis' coach Joe Douglas admitted Jackson was there and Douglas was the one who planted him, using a bit of cloak and dagger to get him a doping control pass. Of course, he won't say what Jackson was there to do.