A Mexican tragedy.
Maria Guadalupe Gonzalez Romero was found positive to a doping control and was therefore suspended provisionally. The provision is dated 16 November but was only announced yesterday by the Athletics Integrity Unit of the International Athletics Federation.
On October 17, the athlete had a test out of competition carried out by the Mexico Commission's anti-doping office on the probable WADA request.
The 29 year old Mexican, silver at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and at the London World Championships in 20 km, would not have passed this test (positive to the trenbolone, an anabolic steroid) and now risks a four-year disqualification.
The Mexican federation through President Antonio Lozano has declared to Marca.com among others the following:
"On November 29, the disciplinary procedure was opened with the information to Lupita and now he will have to give an explanation of why the substance was found in his body.
This substance was confirmed in sample B, and therefore received a temporary suspension. Now he can exercise her rights, or she can tell why that substance is in her body.
I can tell you that this substance, according to the research we are doing, is a substance used to fatten livestock in Mexico, as well as in the United States.
There is a case in which it has also emerged that an athlete from another sport had been found positive for this substance."
Once again the race walking world is shaken by a really sad and ugly news for the image of the specialty after the cases of the Russian athletes, the Alex Schwazer case and the cases related to Matej Toth and Caio Bonfim.
These last two in particular had resolved completely favor for Toth and with a minimal period of banning (recognition of involuntary as an attenuating one) for Caio Bonfim.
Maria Guadalupe Gonzalez, in turn, had benefited from the suspension and cancellation of the result of Liu Hong at the 2016 World Cup in Rome, when the Chinese to treat bronchitis had used an ointment based on floral substances typical of traditional Chinesemedicine, which unfortunately was found to contain Higenamine.
Even this case the Chinese athlete was able to prove complete strangeness and the matter ended with the suspension for a month.
Lupita Gonzalez then won in Rome 2016, but had to succumb to Liu Hong in Rio del Janeiro 2016.
As a must now wait to understand and know the excuses of the athlete in this regard.
We rermember that in the last of her victorious race of 2018 (the IAAF Race Walking World Teams Championship in Taicang) Gonzalez had been capable of a final race of an incredible power.
In fact, after had walked the first 15km with the Chinese Qieyang Shenjie and Yang Jiayu on the average of 4:23/km she had been able to walk from the 16th to the 20th km for 4km on the average of 4:10/km, but above all to conclude the last 3km of the race in less than 12:00 (lower then 4:00/km).
We hope, for the good of race walk, that the athlete can demonstrate the involuntary nature of why this anabolic substance is found in her body.
If unfortunately it was not, it would be a punch from KO for the credibility of race walk and a slap in the face absolutely not deserved for all those walkers who have always been far from practices of this kind.