Peter Bol’s long-time coach Justin Rinaldi has broken down in tears after the runner’s Olympics campaign ended on Thursday night (AEST).
Bol failed to make 800m semi-finals with two disappointing runs in Paris.
He finished seventh in his first heat before running fourth in the repechage with a time of 1:46.12.
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It was a far cry from the brilliant performance in Tokyo in 2021 when he won his semi-final with a then Australian record of 1:44.11.
He would go on to finish fourth in the final, missing out on a stunning bronze by less than a second.
But his world was turned upside down in January last year when he was hit with a provisional suspension for testing positive to the banned substance EPO.
The ban was eventually lifted the following month, but it wasn’t until August when he was officially cleared by Sports Integrity Australia.
Bol was never able to recapture his best form ahead of Paris and coach Rinaldi admitted the past two years had taken its toll.
“It’s hard,” Rinaldi told Channel 9 before pausing to fight back tears.
“I wouldn’t want anyone to go through that. We did nothing wrong. It’s hard.”
Asked if Bol knew the Australian public had his support, Rinaldi said: “He does”.
“Through this whole process there was lots of terrible comments about him, but most of the comments were amazing and we really appreciate all the support he got,” he said.
“It helped him get to this point here today, because without the support, we wouldn’t be here for sure.”
In another twist to the long-running saga surrounding Bol, a potentially damaging screenshot on his mobile phone was made public in a separate anti-doping case.
Bol was mentioned in a Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing involving alleged EPO use by Croatian soccer player Mario Vuskovic. Bol and Vuskovic are both represented by American lawyer Paul Greene.
Lawyers for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) claimed Bol’s case had not involved a false positive, but rather a degradation of his sample between the A and B tests.
Nine Newspapers also reported anti-doping authorities told the hearing they had discovered a screenshot on Bol’s phone, dated to September 2022, which contained information about synthetic EPO use.
After his heat run on Wednesday, Bol put the onus on WADA to put up or shut up.
“I’m actually uncertain when they pulled that out (the screenshot) and where they pulled it from,” he told reporters.
“I read every article out there and there’s probably a billion articles.
“I read a lot on crime and they decided to pull out just the one that suited them; which is again playing a political game.
“If I wasn’t able to race they would have banned me a while ago and I’m still here.
“I’ve got nothing really to answer for.
“I think you guys should be asking (WADA) the questions and they should be answering for those comments.”
– With AAP