{"id":21425,"date":"2023-03-22T14:09:43","date_gmt":"2023-03-22T14:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/22\/distance-runner-given-eight-year-ban-for-doping-after-covid-story-unravels\/"},"modified":"2023-03-22T14:09:43","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T14:09:43","slug":"distance-runner-given-eight-year-ban-for-doping-after-covid-story-unravels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/22\/distance-runner-given-eight-year-ban-for-doping-after-covid-story-unravels\/","title":{"rendered":"Distance runner given eight-year ban for doping after Covid story unravels"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The New Zealand distance runner Zane Robertson has been given an eight-year ban for doping after his claim that he was mistakenly injected with EPO after seeing doctors for a Covid jab was exposed.<\/p>\n

Robertson, who won a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and has competed in the past two Olympics, initially tested positive for EPO at the Great Manchester Run in May last year \u2013 which left him facing a four-year punishment.<\/p>\n

However, the 33-year-old tried to escape censure by telling the authorities that the banned drug had only got into his body after he visited a Kenyan medical facility to get a Covid-19 vaccination \u2013 only to be given treatment for Covid instead.<\/p>\n

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