SASNOC Stays Focused On Olympics

Written by Pio Sioa
Monday, 10 March 2008
MP Vaeolenofoafia Tapasu Leung Wai, President of SASNOC. The build up to the Olympic Games by Samoan athletes may have suffered a shock, with weightlifter, Niusila Opeloge, testing positive for a banned substance, but it has not diminished the focus on the goal of qualifying. The assurance has come from MP Vaeolenofoafia Tapasu Leung Wai, President of the ruling body of sports in Samoa, SASNOC. “The positive testing by Niusila Opeloge for anabolic steroids has come as a surprise to myself and everyone else, but our focus is still on our athletes qualifying for the Olympics in China,” he told Newsline on Thursday. Niusila is the brother of Ele Opeloge who is the Samoan athlete with a strong outside chance of winning a medal for Samoa. “She is training hard and continuing to remain focused about qualifying for the China Olympics.” Meanwhile the Olympic hopes of weightlifter, Niusila Opeloge, rests on the outcome of a B-sample for a second testing as required under the International Weightlifting Federation rules. Plans by the Samoan triple gold medalist to qualify for the China Olympics were derailed last week, when he was tested positive for banned anabolic steroids. The only hopes of getting back on track depends on a second testing, where he has to provide a second urine sample. “We have already discussed the situation with Opeloge and he is still in training,” MP Vaeolenofoafia Tapasu Leung Wai, the President of the ruling body of sports in Samoa, SASNOC, told Newsline last week. “If the testing turns out positive he will still continue to train but with the Commonwealth Games in 2010 to aim for because his 2 year suspension would have been lifted by then, ” says the SASNOC President. Word is yet to reach the SASNOC President about efforts that are already in motion to appeal the IWF suspension. “I was told that we have to file an appeal within 5 days after the decision and we have people working to do that. ‘The suspension is unfortunately effective from the time the decision was taken, and that involves any Olympic funding granted for the athletes training.” Vaeolenofoafia is confident there are still avenues SASNOC can take to appeal the decision, and that if successful it will allow for Niusila Opeloge to attempt to qualify for the Olympics. ‘But of course that will all depend on how the whole situation is handled, right now I am yet to be informed of the progress made. ‘I’ve talked to a few people and they are saying the IWF decision was made public too soon, when there were several issues that remained to be cleared up first.” The SANOC boss sees the situation as an eye opener for them and for the athletes as well. He supports the claims by Opeloge that he has no knowledge of ever taking the drugs . ‘These are expensive drugs and Opeloge is unemployed, weightlifting is his job so how can he afford these drugs?” He has promised that SASNOC will be organizing awareness programmes for local athletes to be more careful in the future about drinking water bottles or eating food that maybe laced with banned substance. Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment Name Email Title Comment

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