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Coach takes the blame for athlete’s positive test for anabolic steroids

Not many would do what coach Dimitar Vassilev did when he took responsibility for the positive doping test of his middle distance runner Daniela Yordanova. In the doping world, where fingerpointing seems to be the trend, this is a rare act.

Yordanova tested positive for testosterone on June 13, 2008. She was considered to be one of her country’s best bets to earn medals in the athletics in the ongoing Beijing Olympics. She placed third and fifth in the 2006 European Championships and in 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens respectively. The Sofia Echo provides details on this news.

Dimitar Vassilev, the coach of Bulgarian runner Daniela Yordanova, took the blame for the positive doping test that will prevent her from participating in the Beijing Olympics, the Associated Press reported on August 18.

“I take the full responsibility for Daniela Yordanova’s positive doping test,” Vasilev was quoted as saying. He said that diet supplements were most likely the cause: “Last spring, I incidentally bought some medicines from Greece and Turkey and most probably they contained some contaminated supplements.”

Yordanova, fifth in the 1500m race at the Athens Olympics, was seen as one of Bulgaria’s best bets for an athletics medal in Beijing. Test samples taken on June 13, however, came back positive for testosterone and she did not even fly out for China.

“We have to take a decision on Yordanova within two months. The expected sanction is a two-year competition ban,” Bulgarian athletics federation president Dobromir Karamarinov said, as quoted by the AP.

“Daniela was part of the world’s elite in the last eight years. She’s been tested constantly and all her samples so far were negative,” Reuters quoted him as saying. “I feel sorry that it’s happening with an athlete who is a model for giving everything possible during training and competitions.”

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