An Olympic runner has been banned from athletics for eight years after testing positive for banned drug Erythropoietin (EPO) — which he claimed was given to him instead of a Covid-19 vaccine in a Kenyan hospital.
Zane Robertson, who is New Zealand’s national record holder for the half and full marathon, is being trolled on Twitter for the alleged lack of integrity of his excuse which was dismissed by his country’s sport tribunal. Robertson has not commented on Instagram or to other media outlets about the ban.
The 33-year-old tested positive after the UK’s Great Manchester Run in May 2022. His secondary B sample also came back positive, leading New Zealand authorities to investigate.
On Wednesday, they announced he had been banned for “providing false documentation in his defence” as well as the positive test.
But he is far from alone in offering an unconventional excuse to try to escape a ban.
Who is Zane Robertson and why has he been banned?
If you thought vax talk was over, you are wrong. Kiwi marathon record holder Zane Robertson @runninelvis has been banned for 8 years after testing positive for EPO. He said he went into a hospital for a Covid vaccine but was unknowingly given EPO instead. https://t.co/yNHLT74AjF
— LetsRun.com (@letsrundotcom) March 22, 2023
Robertson moved to the running Mecca Iten in Kenya in 2007 with his twin brother Jake and has been living there ever since. He has not, as he hoped, established himself as a world beater but has, nonetheless, had a successful career — winning Commonwealth bronze over 5,000 metres in 2014. Both Robertsons began coaching athletes last year.
Robertson announced his retirement in February but did not say he was under investigation.
New Zealand’s anti-doping body said on Wednesday: “Mr Robertson claimed that he had attended a Kenyan medical facility seeking a Covid-19 vaccination but was instead treated for Covid 19, which included the administration of EPO.
“He also claimed that he had told the attending doctor that he was an athlete and could not be treated with a substance that was on the prohibited list. His evidence was that he had not realised it was a second doctor who administered the medication, so he did not repeat his request not to be treated with a prohibited substance.”
The statement added he is not contesting the breaches or appealing for a reduction in the eight-year ban.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Jake Robertson — who made headlines in 2017 when he proposed to his girlfriend after finishing runner-up in the Great North Run.
Straight into the top 10 failed drug test excuses.
— Brendan Bradford (@1bbradfo) March 22, 2023
Also, Zane Robertson was a pacer at the Sydney Marathon last year, dropping out some time after 10km. https://t.co/Mmcn6uzdZf
Of Zane, Michael Houston wrote on Twitter: “Sorry, I can only applaud the gall to come up with such a bad excuse.”
Brendan Bradford added: “Straight into the top 10 failed drug test excuses.”
Here are some of the others that might be in that list of shame.
Richard Gasquet: Kissing and telling
A Wimbledon semi-finalist in 2007, Gasquet was world number 23 in 2009 when he failed a drug test for cocaine use.
The Frenchman said he had kissed a woman in a nightclub the night before a game at the Miami Masters and there had been contamination.
Tennis authorities believed him and Gasquet was allowed to return. However, he had to sit out Wimbledon and the French Open of that year because of the length of time it took for the hearing to take place.
Similar excuses were later used by US sprinter Gill Roberts and Canadian pole vaulter Shawn Barber, who both also got off the hook.
LaShawn Merritt: Male enhancement product…
Why's Lashawn Merritt back already?! A 21 month ban, come on man, that's a farce!! If it's two years it's two years
— Nathan Douglas (@NathanJDouglas) July 29, 2011
Sprinter Merritt won the men’s 400m at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was one of the favourites for London 2012. However, a drug ban in April 2010 was not the most ideal preparation.
The US star made the surprising admission that the banned drug dehydroepiandrosterone found in his system was from an over-the-counter penis enhancement product.
He apologised for the "foolish, immature and egotistical mistake" and returned to become men’s 400m world champion in 2013.
London-based triple jumper Nathan Douglas tweeted at the time that the decison to allow him to return was a “farce”.
Dennis Mitchell: ‘The lady deserved a treat’
Dennis Mitchell was found to have high testosterone levels, and his defense was that he was having too much sex. That didn't go down well with the track committee. pic.twitter.com/drBtYOIeXx
— FACTUAL OPINIONS OF DRED (Habitual Line Stepper) (@FACTUALOPINION0) April 29, 2022
When another American sprinter Dennis Mitchell was found with unusually high levels of testosterone in 1998, he claimed he’d had sex four times with his wife that day.
"It was her birthday, the lady deserved a treat,” he told the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF). The sport’s governing body investigated his excuse but found his testosterone could not have risen so highly because of sex alone.
He was banned for two years, however Spanish race walker Daniel Plaza had better luck with the same excuse in 1996 when his two-year ban was overturned. The 1992 Olympic champion successfully claimed sex with his pregnant wife could explain his own high nandrolone levels.
Javier Sotomayor: Blaming the CIA and ‘anti-Castro mafia’
Javier Sotomayor, Cuban athlete, born 54 years today on 13 Oct 1967, in Limonar, Matanzas. 1992 Olympic champion; world record holder; dominant high jumper of the 1990s. His personal best of 2.45 m (8 ft 1⁄2 in) makes him the only person in history to have cleared eight feet. pic.twitter.com/QO77n7uTC4
— Wayne Chen (@wcchen) October 13, 2021
Cuban Javier Sotomayor is arguably the greatest high jumper of all time with his 2.45m jump in 1993 still a world record.
However, in 1999 his legacy was threatened when he tested positive for cocaine. But unlike Gasquet, Barber and Roberts, he did not argue that it was contamination from a kiss — but instead was a plot by the CIA or anti-Castro mafia.
The former Cuban president, Fidel Castro, himself stepped in to lobby the IAAF and Sotomayor’s two-year ban was halved. This allowed him to finish his career with a silver medal at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
