athletics
Association on doping allegations against Benfares sisters: “Hit like a bomb”
Runner Sara Benfares tested positive for the blood doping drug Epo
© Angelika Warmuth / DPA
There has been a suspicion of doping against the German runner Sara Benfares for weeks, and now also against her sister. This will also be discussed at the World Athletics Championships in Glasgow.
After the doping allegations against the German runners Sofia and Sara Benfares, the German Athletics Association (DLV) reiterated its previous stance at the World Indoor Championships. “That is of course what hit us like a bomb. We are of course very affected,” said competitive sports director Jörg Bügner to the ARD “Sportschau” at the weekend in Glasgow. “And of course our strategy is still clear. We stand 100 percent for the anti-doping fight, for clean and fair sport. And of course that has left a deep mark on us, that has to be said very clearly.”
The National Anti-Doping Agency NADA had initiated proceedings against both sisters. The blood doping drug Epo was detected in both of them during checks. A verdict in this case is still pending.
In 2011, the DLV transferred the results and disciplinary management of training and competition controls and thus the examination and prosecution of doping violations in German athletics to NADA as an independent authority. “There are highly competent people at work,” said Bügner. That’s why they won’t comment on the case, “because that would basically be a prejudgment.”
Benfares’ father explains positive doping test with medication
Basically and without direct reference to the ongoing proceedings, Bügner emphasized for the anti-doping fight that there can be no 100% security if “criminal energy” is present. “It seems that the anti-doping system and the testing procedure are working, and that should make us positive,” said Bügner. “It would probably be desirable for there to be more controls to make the network a little tighter.”
Sara Benfares’ father Samir, who is also the sisters’ coach, said in a report from a French portal that his daughter had been diagnosed with bone cancer. The positive sample was due to the urgent taking of medication. The siblings grew up near Paris. But you start for Germany.