Peter Bol's lawyer makes bombshell new claims amid doping furore

Peter Bol's lawyer says the track star should never have been confronted with allegations of doping, labelling the Sport Integrity Australia (SIA) case against him a 'sham'. Paul Green, the lawyer for Bol, says two independent tests have returned negative results for illicit substances of any kind.

The athletics community was left in shock earlier this year when it emerged Bol had been provisionally suspended after an out-of-competition test sample returned a positive result for banned drug erythropoietin, known as EPO. His ban was lifted after his 'B' sample was tested and returned a negative result.

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However SIA's case against Bol remains pending, due to the 'B' sample returning an 'atypical' result - neither indicating nor ruling out the presence of EPO in the sample. Green says the results from the independent testing he commissioned, which he has delivered to SIA, prove beyond doubt that Bol is innocent.

The call to drop charges come amid debate within the industry as to the best methodology for testing for EPO. The SARS-Page gel test was used to test Bol's 'A' sample, with isoelectric focusing (IEF) used on the 'B' sample.

"We had two of the most world-class analytical chemists in the world look at his results and say this wasn't even a close call, these were just negative tests," Greene told the Nine Network. "They (SIA) just couldn't get it right, they had no idea what they were doing.

"And the worst part of it now is: one, it was announced first of all which it never should have been, I begged them not to announce it. Two, now they just ... obviously are wrong, they are refusing to drop this sham investigation."

Additionally, Green has accused the Australian Sports Drug Testing Laboratory (ASDTL) of 'inexperience and incompetence' which 'led to an incorrect determination' in Bol's case. Greene said SIA had "absolutely no evidence at all" of any wrongdoing.

"There is no urine sample positive, there is no evidence he took anything in his urine, it's 100 per cent negative," he said. "There was nothing on his phone. There is nothing on his computer.

"There's absolutely zero evidence. They just need to say, 'We have no evidence, we messed this up, this was a mistake'."

Peter Bol counting cost of Sport Integrity Australia saga

Bol is yet to make his return to athletics despite being cleared to do so following the test of his 'B' sample. He will not be appearing at the Australian Track and Field Championships in Brisbane, which begin on April 3.

The 29-year-old has stated that he will not pursue legal action against SIA, despite his legal expenses totalling more than $50,000. Instead, he has called on the doping authority to 'be better' and drop the case.

Bol and his camp were already left fuming when details of the positive 'A' sample were leaked to media in January, just days before he was expected to win the Young Australian of the Year award. He had shot to prominence thanks to starring performances in the 800m dash at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and Commonwealth Games in 2022.

“But I want SIA to see this as an opportunity to improve,” he said. “Not to see it as me trying to fight them. We’ve been transparent the whole time. They should be the same.

"What my family has gone through should never happen, but it did happen, and we want people to be held accountable … We’re not here to say we’re angry. We want to understand why people did it. That is the least they can do.”

The results of the independent tests come after concerns were raised about the aforementioned testing methodology by Oslo professors of biochemistry and molecular biology Jon Nissen-Meyer, Tore Skotland, Erik Boye and Bjarne Osterud. The quartet of Norwegian scholars said WADA's methods had several key vulnerabilities which had caught Bol out.

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