Peter Bol: Coach Justin Rinaldi reveals the mental toll star runner’s positive test took on his training

Peter Bol’s coach has shed light on the harrowing period the Olympic hero endured as he fought to clear his name, with the WA star even struggling to get out and jog amid fears of being judged by the public.

A joyous and relieved Bol today revealed his B sample had come back negative for EPO, weeks after pledging to fight allegations he had taken the performance enhancing drug.

But the Commonwealth Games silver medallist isn’t entirely clear just yet, with Sports Integrity Australia revealing their will investigations will continue.

His coach, Justin Rinaldi, praised Bol’s fortitude during the difficult period, but conceded it will take some time for the 28-year-old to recover mentally.

“He’s been remarkably strong. I think it would have broken a lot of people, but he was positive and confident that he’d done nothing wrong and that at the end of the day that would come out, but obviously he’s had some trying times,” he told 6PR.

“He’s found it hard to even go for a jog every day because he goes out and people recognise Peter and when they see him they make comments and that’s hard to live with.

“It’s going to take a while for him to get back into the mental groove and get back into the hard rigours of training, I’ve left him have just a few weeks to recover, but then we’ll set our sights on racing in Europe later this summer and going to the world champs.”

Rinaldi also revealed Bol called him immediately after receiving the result of his B sample, and lifted the curtain on the pair’s first interaction.

“He called me… he was keeping a straight poker face but I called see a slight smile in the corner of his mouth and I said to him straight away ‘you’re negative aren’t you’ and he goes ‘yes’,” he said.

“It was just great news.

“I had no doubt. I know Peter very well and I know what we stand for, we’d never take performance enhancing drugs, so I had no doubt with Peter.

Bol’s US lawyer Paul Greene told The Age the runner’s negative A test should never have been made public and was disappointed in Athletics Australia and Sport Integrity Australia’s handling of the case.

“There was a fatal mistake in the way this was handled that has put Peter Bol through unnecessary pain,” Greene said.

“The provisional suspension does not get made public, it should never be made public. You can say ‘well, it was leaked’, but there should be an investigation into how it leaked and people held to account.

“Athletics Australia and Sport Integrity Australia need to look inward at how this happened. People have a duty of confidentiality.

“USADA never announces a test until the B sample confirms the A. The athlete is provisionally suspended, but they just lay low until the B sample is confirmed.”

Greene was formally advised on Tuesday morning the B sample did not match the A sample.

“We got the confirmation this morning, but we have still not got any lab documents from them. He has been put through the ringer and we have no documentation from the labs at all,” Greene said.

While Bol took to social media to reveal his joy at the news hid provisional suspension had been lifted, Sport Integrity Australia tempered Bol’s statement, saying his B sample showed an atypical finding that was not the same as a negative result and their investigation would continue.

“The investigation into the matter remains ongoing. Sport Integrity Australia will, as part of its investigation, proceed to consider whether any anti-doping rule violation/s have been committed,” the statement read.

Sport Integrity Australia stated while their investigation would continue, they were unable to provide a timeframe at this point.

Rinaldi said Bol’s team hopes the testing process can be clearer and more definitive for athletes in the the future.

“What we learnt about the test is it’s not definitive saying the person has taken EPO, it’s basically just a line and if you go slightly over that line they make the assumption that the only way you can go over that line is if you took synthetic EPO,” he said.

“Some people have higher amounts of EPO in their body and some people have lower… that’s the tricky thing about this test that we’d like to question for other athletes moving forward.”