The Athletics Integrity Unit has finally closed the "case" of the South African race-walking star Lebogang Shange who had failed a doping test for a steroid‚ t on 4th November 2019.
The athlete‚ who ended fourth at the world championships two years before‚ have been tested positive to trenbolone‚ a steroid used primarily in veterinary medicine, specifically to increase the profitability of livestock by promoting muscle growth and appetite.
The substance would haver been administered to the athlete by injection into muscle.
Shange’s appeal saw him briefly able to compete in qualifying for Tokyo.
Leobogang Shange competed in a meeting organized by the local athletics federation held on Friday 18 June 2021 at the Msunduzi Athletics Stadium in Pietermaritzburg in the Kwa-Zulku Natal region about 80km north of Durban in South Africa with the goal to obtain the possible qualification for the Olympic Games.
However, the CAS verdict ends his hopes of appearing at the Games, and disqualifies his qualifying results, along with all other results from November 4, 2019 onwards - as well as any awards, medals, points and prizes won during that time.
Now the final word has been put by the autonomous judging body of World Athletics which has added the brief period in which he was able to compete and definitively sanctioned his ineligibility until 11.1.2024.