Doping-friendly Enhanced Games' message to wunderkind Issam Asinga following his doping ban

Doping-friendly Enhanced Games' message to wunderkind Issam Asinga following his doping ban

Abigael Wafula 17:40 - 28.05.2024

Doping-friendly Enhanced Games have a message for 19-year-old Issam Asinga after he was slapped with a four-year ban by the Athletics Integrity Unit.

Doping-friendly Enhanced Games have already made a call to Issam Asinga following his ban from the Athletics Integrity Unit.

The 19-year-old athlete has been slapped with a four-year ban after testing positive for Metabolites, an anti-doping violation, in a testing sample on July 18, 2023.

The Enhanced Games, in their bid to recruit new athletes, have already reached out to the former Montverde Academy star. In a post on their Instagram stories, they said: “You are welcome at the Enhanced Games.”

Follow the Pulse Sports Kenya Instagram handle for more news.

Meanwhile, the Athletics Integrity Unit provisionally suspended Asinga on August 9 following a positive test on his urine sample which found a substance on the WADA prohibitive list.

At the moment, the sprinter has now been stripped the under-20 world record in the 100m and it has been returned to Letsile Tebogo, who had set the initial world record.

However, the youngster has plans to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. In a statement, Asinga insisted that he has always been committed to the integrity of my sport.

Asinga noted that he has been a hyper-vigilant athlete and has never knowingly used any banned substance to risk his promising career and my entire future.

“Sadly, in 2023 while I was still a high school senior, Pepsico gave me a Gatorade gift package which contained Gatorade Recovery Gummies, displaying the industry-approved NSF Certified for Sport logo.

“The containers given to me were later tested at a WADA-accredited laboratory which identified that the product given to me was contaminated with GW1516, the same substance I tested positive for in trace amounts.

“Further, it turned out that the lot number on the containers given to me was NOT from an NSF-Certified for Sport lot,” he said in a part of the statement.

He also respects the AIU’s responsibility to protect the sport but expressed his devastation that they issued the harshest ruling without regard for the facts and the evidence presented, which showed that the product I was given and took the week before my positive test was contaminated.

“I am even more disheartened by misleading product labeling from a major corporation and their refusal to provide product samples needed to help an athlete they honored as their Gatorade Athlete of the Year.

"Even the AIU’s decision says Pepsico must have a sealed container saved from the same lot they gave to me.

"Based on this decision and the way the AIU is treating me, testing a sealed version from the same lot seems the only way I can clear my name. As the product is now ironically discontinued, there is no way for me to purchase it. Pepsico is solely in control of my ability to test the product and exonerate myself,” he added in the statement.

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