The South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport (SAIDS) has dismissed former Springboks fly-half Elton Jantjies claim that he will return to playing professional rugby “sooner than you think.”
Jantjies made the claim in a now-deleted Instagram video over the weekend.
“Just believe with me that I’ll be back on the park sooner than what you think because I’ve got all the right answers, facts and evidence against a lot of organisations that aren’t doing it the right way,” he said.
The 33-year-old 2019 Rugby World Cup winner is serving a four-year ban from the sport after testing positive for the banned substance Clenbuterol. SAIDS imposed the suspension in January after Jantjies failed to lodge an appeal within the required period.
SAIDS responds to Elton Jantjies
In emailed comments to Current Affairs ZA on Wednesday (8 May), SAIDS Chief Executive Officer Khalid Galant said he had “no idea what Mr Jantjies is referring or alluding to.”
“All avenues to seek relief from his sanction have expired. He did not exercise his rights during that period. No athlete, as far as I am aware, ever presented evidence after their case was concluded, to have a new case heard and the original sanction overturned,” he added.
No re-testing
In March, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) suspended the South African Doping Control Laboratory (SADoCoL), which tested Jantjies, for six months.
In a statement, WADA said it had suspended SADoCoL for “multiple non-conformities with the International Standard for Laboratories, including non-conformities with Technical Documents and the continued ATR, among other issues.”
“During the period of suspension, samples that have not yet been analysed by the Laboratory, samples currently undergoing a confirmation procedure, and any samples for which an Adverse Analytical Finding has been reported, must be securely transported to another WADA-accredited laboratory,” it added.
This led to speculation that Jantjies’ sample could be re-tested in another laboratory, potentially producing a negative result and leading to his ban being overturned.
However, Galant said this is not the case.
“Mr Jantjies’ sample has already been analysed. Sample being [sent] to another Lab has not yet been analysed. No samples are being re-tested,” he said.