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The lawyer for Peter Bol has labelled the news that the Olympic star is still being investigated for doping violations a “disgrace”.
Bol has always maintained his innocence, and that appeared to be confirmed on Tuesday with news his B-sample did not match his A-sample. His provisional suspension has now been lifted.
But Sport Integrity Australia and Athletics Australia confirmed late on Tuesday that the 28-year-old’s B-sample produced an “atypical finding” (ATF).
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“An ATF is not the same as a negative test result. An ATF is a report from a WADA-accredited laboratory which requires further investigation,” Sport Integrity Australia said in a statement.
Speaking on Nine’s Today, Lawyer Paul Greene said the process is flawed.
“This whole thing that Sport Integrity Australia released a statement essentially still trying to cast a cloud over him, it’s a disgrace in my opinion,” he said.
“Let’s be clear, an atypical finding is the same as a negative finding in one very important respect. Neither one provides any evidence that Peter did anything wrong.
“That’s what everyone needs to understand.”
Bol investigation ongoing despite lifted suspension
Greene pointed out that an ATF is a relatively frequent occurrence.
“There are many atypical findings every day in the anti-doping world,” he explained.
“They don’t mean anything as it relates to actually being charged with an anti-doping rule violation. It means something atypical or not completely within the norm.”
He said Bol had not been given any laboratory documents to allow him to explain what might have caused the ATF.
“Peter is innocent. He never took anything. They can say whatever they want. They have no evidence that he did anything wrong,” he said.
“And they are never going to get any evidence because he didn’t. So I don’t care what they say.”
Greene said Bol had been badly let down by the whole process.
“The anti-doping world is looking after their own interests. They are supposed to look after the interests of athletes.
“I have done this stuff for almost 20 years. They don’t look after the interests of the athletes. They will circle the wagons and protect their own every time. That’s what they are doing here.
“Let’s be clear. They are the ones that leaked this when it never should have been leaked. I am not sure who it was, whether it was Sport Integrity Australia or Athletics Australia. It doesn’t matter from our perspective. It never should have been leaked, never should have been released.
“All they should have said was the B did not confirm the A. That’s it. There’s nothing else. There is no evidence that he did anything wrong. That statement is failing to acknowledge that they messed up the whole thing from the beginning. They are clearly trying to cover their tracks.”
Greene confirmed he and Bol were yet to decide if they’ll take legal action over the matter, although he conceded the 28-year-old’s focus needed to be on the track in the lead-up to Paris in 2024.
“What an atypical finding does is it triggers additional testing. Nothing more. That’s all an atypical finding normally does,” he said.
“Normally an athlete doesn’t even know they have an atypical finding. They may never know, and certainly it’s not public. There are atypical findings every day, where they go and do more target testing. That’s it. So, the fact that they continue to just publicly have this case before all of Australia is just sad, really.”
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