Adams tearful after cheat tests positive

 

By , 14 Aug 2012

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    Valerie Adams was tearful when she learned she’d won gold in the Olympic women’s shot put after the winner was exposed as a drugs cheat.

    Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus beat Adams on the park with a best throw of 21.36m, more than half a metre above Adams’ best on the night.

    But urine samples from the day before the event and immediately after it tested positive to the anabolic agent metenolone and she has been stripped of her title.

    Adams was overcome when told the news by New Zealand Olympics chef de mission Dave Currie about 11.30am UK time on Monday.

    “I asked Dave if the news was for real, and then just burst into tears. I was overwhelmed that I’d won gold,” she said.

    “I’m honoured and humbled for the support I’ve received from New Zealand and would like to thank the country.

    “It is also encouraging for those athletes, like myself who are proud to compete cleanly, that the system works and doping cheats are caught.”

    Currie says there were rumours about Ostapchuk after her distances improved sharply before and during the Olympics; when asked about Ostapchuk’s throws immediately after the competition, Adams’ coach, Jean-Pierre Egger, pointedly said he didn’t want to comment.

    “At that stage you’ve got to have faith in the process, that it will work. It did work, and we’re delighted with that,” Currie said.

    “It’s sad that Val didn’t have the opportunity to stand on the dias at the time, but it’s just fantastic.”

    He said the gold medal was in Belarus and it could take months before Adams received it.

    Ostapchuk was the 12th athlete at the Olympics to be excluded following doping tests, but the first to lose a medal.

    The decision means New Zealand moves up to 15th on the Olympic medal table with a total of six golds, two silvers and five bronzes.

    The Belarussian, the 2005 world champion, finished fourth at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and took bronze in Beijing four years ago.

    © AAP 2013
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