Marathon News - Two Oceans Top-Placer Tests Positive

May-20-2006

Two Oceans Top-Placer Tests Positive
by Riel Hauman
(c) Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved

Themba Lamane, fourth-place finisher in this year's Old Mutual Two Oceans
ultramarathon, has been suspended after traces of the prohibited substance
Norandrosterone were found in a sample collected from him at the Cape Town
ultra on April 15.

Lamane is the second South African distance runner to test positive for
Norandrosterone this year. Marathon record holder Gert Thys is also
currently under suspension after he was tested at the Seoul International
Marathon in March. The announcement of his suspension was made less than a
month ago.

Athletics South Africa (ASA) announced in a media release that the SA
Institute for Drug Free Sport found the substance in Lamane's urine sample
at the Two Oceans and that he is suspended from all competition under IAAF
Rule 32.2(a). Lamane has until next week to notify ASA if he wants to have
his "B" sample tested and if he wants to submit to a hearing.

Lamane (29) won the Vaal Marathon earlier this year in 2:17:30 and then
improved his personal best in the Two Oceans by almost 6 minutes to win his
first gold medal in 3:10:48. He finished 41 seconds behind Comrades champion
Sipho Ngomane.

Commenting on the announcement, ASA General Manager Linda Ferns said that
the spate of positive tests among South African road runners was "worrying".
She referred to the four runners from the Harmony club, among them Azwindini
Lukhwareni, who tested positive last year and said that the Medicine Control
Board had to stop the people supplying drugs to athletes.

Ferns said the four Harmony runners all received their drugs from a single
pharmacy in Pretoria, and added that she was not aware that there had been
any action taken against the pharmacy.

Thys's case has not been resolved yet, and neither has that of Hezekiel
Sepeng, holder of the SA record in the 800m. Sepeng tested positive in
February last year.