Peter Bol: Drug test leaked to stop Young Australian nod, says star WA runner

Peter Bol says his positive out-of-competition doping test in January was leaked at “just a perfect time” for a peak sporting body to avoid negative publicity, with the WA athlete nominated for a Young Australian of the Year award days later. In an exclusive interview with 7NEWS’ Spotlight, which airs on Sunday night, Bol speaks publicly for the first time since being cleared by a B sample that did not corroborate the positive A vial. When asked whether Athletics Australia, which runs the sport in this country, or Sports Integrity Australia, which investigates positive drug tests, were guilty of the leak, Bol said: “Well, let’s put it this way... it’s a process of elimination. “A leak happened some-where there,” he said. “And I’m a hundred per cent certain my team did not leak anything.” Last year’s Birmingham Commonwealth Games 800m silver medallist did not attend the Australian of the Year Awards in January after the positive result. The 29-year-old qualified automatically for the Young Australian category after winning the WA equivalent in November. He was considered a frontrunner for the national award after his Birmingham heroics and a fourth place in the 800m at the Tokyo Olympics. “At just a perfect time, just a few days before Young Australian of the Year awards ... I mean, let’s get one thing straight, we were never guaranteed to win Young Australian of the Year but... strong contender,” Bol said. “I mean... being named Young West Australian of the Year was just, it’s quite inspiring being around so many great people. And I think we were robbed of that. I mean, there was a lunch with the Prime Minister. We were robbed from being there, meeting the Prime Minister. And when you sit in that room, I recall being in Western Australia, you sit in a room with such passionate people, and it just inspires you.” He felt the leak robbed him of that opportunity. “Yeah, it certainly did,” Bol told Spotlight. When the atypical B sample (neither positive nor negative) cleared Bol, his coach, Justin Rinaldi, called on the Athletics Australia board to stand down CEO Peter Bromley pending an investigation into the premature leak. AA president Jan Swinhoe and Bromley denied the leak came from AA and said there were other organisations aware of Bol’s ban. But Rinaldi told The Sunday Times there “so much detail” in the leak, it had to come from an informed source. He scoffed at claims his own camp had leaked the positive A result. “I don’t know what we would have to gain for leaking that information because he has lost a lot through this,” Rinaldi said. “If we thought that was a good idea, we would be stupid. The information coming out was quite detailed. The people knew about the number of tests. I had a phone call on Saturday telling me the B result had come back as different from the A sample. “We weren’t officially told that until Tuesday, so this is someone ringing with this information. There was a lot of information coming out that was more than just a guess. “Bromley said the media would have known (he was provisionally suspended) when he was missing from training or missing from start lists. There were no races five weeks ago when they released the A result. The first big race this year is next week in Melbourne and the start lists weren’t even out, so I don’t know how the media would pick up five weeks ago that Peter was missing.” Bol told Spotlight the positive finding was “either a set-up, or a big mistake”. SIA’s investigation remains open. “I have absolutely nothing to hide,” Bol says in the interview. “I’m not running to be the best in the world any more. I’m running to clear my name.” The West Australian revealed on Wednesday Bol has ruled out a return to competition at the national titles in Queensland later this month, focusing instead on the European season. He will need to produce a qualifying time of 1:44.70 in Europe to qualify for the world titles in Budapest in August. Bol has a personal best of 1:44.00, run in Paris in June 2022. Bol, who has not been tested since he was cleared, is still waiting to hear when he will face a SIA grilling over theconflicting test results. His US-based lawyer, Paul Greene, will fly in for the hearing. Bol’s camp also revealed to The West Australian last month they will be looking at how the drug samples were stored and transported to Sydney from Perth, where the tests took place on October 11 last year. Bol wants to clear his name and is prepared to have his kidneys tested to see if they produce naturally high levels of EPO after the positive finding was deemed borderline and four other tests were negative. It is believed his siblings may also have the same test to determine if it’s genetic. In October, Athletics Australia named Bol the Peter Norman Humanitarian Award winner for his work as a coach, mentor, keynote speaker and contributions to various children’s charities. Spotlight airs at 9pm Sunday on Seven.