Veteran match-maker and boxing promoter, Abdul Rasheed Williams, says It will be wrong to solely blame Shakul Samed for his alleged intake of a banned substance at the ongoing 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
The boxer was banned from the Games after the anti doping agency found a banned substance in his sample.
According to the veteran match-maker, the country should take full responsibility as it failed to camp the boxers well enough to prevent them from going wayward and taking things for granted.
“They did not have any proper camping, they were not camped in-house, there was no residential camping, so they went out and took in whatever they could, they were neither monitored nor had a better nutritionist,” he told the Graphic Sports in an exclusive interview in Accra last Wednesday.
Coach Believer, as he is popularly referred to in boxing circles, asserts that lack of attention to boxing and the boxers’ welfare was to be blamed.
“These boxers do everything and anything for survival and to eke a living, they don’t care what they eat or what they absorb into their system so far as it keeps them going, then it is ok for them. The Ghana Boxing Federation has no substantive nutritionist, psychologist and physiotherapist, which is bad for a national team,” he stated.
A statement by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) Anti-Doping and Medical Commission which explained why the boxer was banned said “The sample of Shakul Samed, a boxer from Ghana, violated anti-doping rules for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.”
“His A sample was found to contain a prohibited substance (diuretic and masking agent – Furosemide).”
Responding to the suspension, Mr Bernard Quartey, president of the Ghana Boxing Federation (GBF), noted that despite the misfortune the team was working hard to return home with a medal.
“There is a lot of noise going on in the media and we don’t want Shakul Samed’s incident to affect the entire team.
Credit: Graphic Sports
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