Botswana's track star Amantle Montsho waits her fate on doping

IANS
Amantle Montsho

Gaborone, Dec 18 (IANS)

Botswana's former World and Commonwealth Games champion Amantle Montsho is yet to know her fate five months after failing a drug test. Montsho tested positive for a prohibited substance, methylhexaneamine, at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games in July, reports Xinhua. The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) immediately withheld her results from the event, where she competed as a defending champion, but later handed the case over to Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) to decide an appropriate action for the athlete.

Despite revealing some two months back that they were close to a conclusion, the BAA is yet to announce on the fate of the three-time Diamond League winner.

BAA spokesperson Glody Dube told the media Wednesday the final decision should have been released by now but the process has not been finalised.

He said they have been engaged in consultation with a lot of stakeholders and specialists, hence it took long to reach a verdict. He acknowledged that Botswana has not dealt with a lot of serious doping issues in the past and that doping is a serious matter treated with delicacy world over.

"The challenge that we have is that we do not have enough sports doctors in Botswana. so, we encourage athletes to stay away from supplements by all means," Dube said.

Meanwhile Montsho, who is arguably Botswana's most successful track athlete, remains in provisional suspension. She is awaiting for the verdict. If found guilty, she faces between six months to two years of suspension.

The outcome of the case might spell doom to her career. At 31, she has already started showing signs of a decline after failing to defend both her world title and the CWG Gold. Montsho's career's best moment came in 2011 when she was crowned world 400m champion in Daegu, South Korea.