WINNIPEG – A former University of Manitoba Bisons football player has been suspended after testing positive for Oxandrolone, a synthetic anabolic steroid.
Ranji Atwall, a defensive line player last season, was handed a four-year sanction from the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports (CCES).
“Basically it’s cheating. Steroids aren’t part of the rules and they’re not permitted. It’s against the spirit of sport, it steals the very soul of sport competition when one or more competitors are doping through the use of steroids,” says CCES COO Doug MacQuarrie over the phone.
The sample, which tested positive, was collected during out-of-competition doping control on March 17 in Edmonton, according to a CCES release.
Atwall admitted to the violation, waived his rights to a hearing and accepted the suspension.
“He’s paying his own personal consequences right now, he’s suffering through that right now on a very, very, very, bad choice that he made and certainly realizes the implications of that choice,” says Bisons football head coach, Brian Dobie.
“Our goal is to have 100 percent of our student athletes competing fairly and drug free and so I’m disappointed and I have to say there’s probably a little bit of anger there,” says Coleen Dufresne, Bison Sports Athletic Director.
The sanction makes Atwall ineligible to play in any capacity.
This is not the first time the football player, originally from Richmond, BC, has been caught in a violation.
In 2011, Atwall’s sample tested positive for the presence of cannabis while he was playing in the Canadian Junior Football League.
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