The podium with the tricolor majority of the 3000 European hedges is about to lose a piece and the case of doping that spoils the memory betrays Italian trust and athletics. Ahmed Abdelwahed silver in that August race that thrilled us and now we will no longer have much desire to relate, he tested positive for doping. The substance found is still not clear, we are talking about meldonium, a drug that has already engulfed Sharapova (and several other Russians).
He says he took supplements in the United States and didn’t notice the contamination. He has the right to his defense, to counter-analyzes, but just as any intriguing result should not be ruined with gratuitous suspicion, any evidence of falsity must be taken seriously. There is a reason why in sports justice one is guilty up to the contrary definition, as opposed to what happens in ordinary trials. Betraying dreams is a mortal sin, Abdelwahed, 26, is one of the names of the redemption of the blue middle-distance runner who has taken an important path in Monaco and is also the representative of a second generation that would have deserved more respect.
He won a brilliant medal, shared the podium with another Italian: Osama Zoghlami who could now take his place in the ranking, and told a story that has become an example that now risks turning into a mockery. He told us about his childhood among the pallets of the itinerant markets between Rome and Ostia, about the pride of having grown up in the home of parents who had the courage to change the world and to leave Morocco without anything to rebuild a life here, for years in which he grew up on the street and believed that everything was tight until he discovered that there was what it took to grow motivated. Then, at some point, he must have forgotten. Whenever a single athlete cheats, the sport struggles to absorb the lost credibility. Damage in the singular often becomes a collective nuisance. Especially since the Abdelwahed case comes a few hours from Hajjy, a 43-year-old marathon runner suspended pending disciplinary proceedings due to erythropoietin positivity. And a few months after the three-year disqualification for Nesim Amsellek, the 1500-meter specialist who would certainly have been called up to the last Europeans and instead was stopped in July. Abdelwahed is certainly a name of another weight and in addition to making more noise it does more damage. Chain.