Ex-QDMS
1997 Comrades winner Charl Mattheus.Mandatory byline: Picture by Etienne Rothbart – The Star
June 16 1992 was the first time a runner was stripped of his Comrades Marathon winner’s medal for doping or cheating.
Charl Mattheus reportedly took medicine for a sore throat which, at that time, was on the IAAF’s banned substance list.
The substance was later removed from the list as evidence showed it had no performance- enhancing properties.
He returned to the race in 1997 with an emphatic win.
A year later, Herman Matthee, who finished in the top 10, was stripped of his gold medal after video evidence showed he had caught a taxi along the route, cutting out almost 40km of the 90km race.
In 1999, Zimbabwean brothers Arnold and Sergio Motsoeneng ran the race as a relay, changing shirts in toilet stops and aided by a car along the way.
They were exposed after video footage showed them wearing their watches on different arms.
Sergio returned in 2010 to come third in the race only to test positive for the banned substance, Nandrolone.
Joburg runner Andre van der Vyver and his son, Willem, copped lifetime bans in 2003 after it was found that Andre had been wearing two Championchips – the device which was used to record splits for competitors as they run over mats along the way.
The father and son duo’s times at each split were identical, suggesting that they, too, had been running in relays.
A group of young athletes from a Joburg-based athletics club used false qualifying times so they could run together in 2001.
No women have been banned for doping or cheating.
Seven deaths have been recorded in the 91-year-history of the Comrades.
