The Irish champion’s jersey and the gold, silver and bronze medals for the Masters 40 road race last year are set to be re-distributed after it emerged the winner on the day failed a doping test.
Dale Walker took the victory in Gorey, Co Wexford, in
September last year but Sport Ireland and Cycling Ireland yesterday announced a
urine sample taken from him after the race was found to contain banned
substances.
At the end of the 113.5km Masters 40 Irish title race in September, 2019, Walker beat Gareth McCullough (Armagh Down CC) for the title. Robin Kelly (Waterford Racing) was 3rd and Gordon Boland (Tullamore CTC) was 4th across the line on the day.
However, due to the doping violation, Walker loses the title and is removed from the race result. Everyone else is also moved up one place in the final race result.
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Stickybottle understands Cycling Ireland is making
arrangements for the champion’s jersey and gold medal to be returned by Walker
and the medals will then be redistributed.
McCullough is promoted to gold as the Irish Masters 40
road race champion for 2019. Kelly is bumped up one place to the silver medal
position and Boland will get the bronze medal.
In the urine sample taken from Walker after the race a
number of banned substances were found, namely epioxandrolone, oxandrolone,
18-noroxandrolone and boldenone and/or boldenone metabolite(s).
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Walker, who was racing for Phoenix CC on the day he won, denied any wrongdoing. He requested his ‘B’ sample be tested, though it showed the same results as his ‘A’ sample.
Walker provided some supplements he had been taking so
they could be tested to determine if they were the source of the substances in
his system.
When the supplements Walker provided were tested “the anabolic steroid oxandrolone was detected” in one product and it was not listed in the ingredients on the tub, according to Sport Ireland.
However, the boldenone - an anabolic androgenic steroid - found in his urine sample was not detected in the supplements when they were tested.
Walker said he could not explain the presence of the boldenone in his system but insisted he had never injected anything and denied getting any performance gain.
He suggested the boldenone may have come from something
he had eaten but Sport Ireland described that as “speculative” and he was
judged to have committed a doping violation.
Because he had not admitted guilt at the start of the process, he was given a four-year ban. It was backdated to November, 2019, when his provisional suspension was imposed on him.
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