Spaniards Sergio Sanchez and Angel Mullera test positive for PEDs

Spaniards Sergio Sanchez and Angel Mullera test positive for PEDs

Sep 12, 2013 by Ryan Sterner
Spaniards Sergio Sanchez and Angel Mullera test positive for PEDs
Two Spanish athletes that competed at this summer’s Moscow World Championships have tested positive for banned substances.

Angel Mullera tested positive for steroids. While his fellow countryman, former European Indoor Record Holder and 2010 World Indoor Championship silver medalist Sergio Sanchez, was positive for EPO. 

Mullera’s positive test comes as no surprise. 

Back in 2012 he was implicated in a doping scandal, and subsequently dropped from the Spanish Olympic roster, though never testing positive for any substance. He took his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and was reinstated to the team. Apparently the litigation was exhausting, as he didn’t make it past the qualifying rounds for the steeplechase in London. This year in Moscow, however, he finished 11th place.

Sanchez, on the other hand, has been a vocal anti-doping advocate

After “Operation Galgo” in 2011, which led to the arrest 14 athletes--runners and cyclists alike--that had been fingered in a blood doping ring, Sanchez was quoted saying “I only hope I can win an Olympic medal so that Lissavetzky comes to congratulate me. Then I'll smack him in the face with the medal and tell him that that's the thanks he gets for all the help he's given me, which is nothing.” He went on to say that “this country is a disgrace.” His positive test is irony in its highest form.

The positive test came from the Spanish National Championships which took place July 27 and 28th, less than two weeks away from the World Championships. That fact comes with two concerns: that they competed in Moscow with performance enhancing drugs in their system, and that if these two guys did it, how many other athletes snuck under the radar?

Editor's Note: We've always been a little wary of Sanchez. Three years ago, LetsRun.com had some translated articles about doping in Spain, one of which included quotes from Sanchez. One month after that article was published, he became the third fastest indoor 2000m athlete 
all-time with a 4:52.90 run in Oviedo. The all-time top 10 list is below.

Less than one month after that, he ran the European indoor 3000m record of 7:32.41 in Valencia. Since that magical season, Sanchez hasn't been close to those marks, with the only possible exception being of his 13:12.97 new 5k PR he set this season in Ostrava. As Tom Bedford has said, this gives a new meaning to "Dirty Sanchez."


via all-athletics.com
Result P.A. Pos. Athlete Birth Cnt. Type Pl. Venue Date R.S.
4:49.99 1. 1. Kenenisa BEKELE 82 ETH F 1. Birmingham (GBR) 17.02.2007 1280
4:52.86 2. 2. Haile GEBRSELASSIE 73 ETH F 1. Birmingham (GBR) 15.02.1998 1249
4:52.90 3. 3. Sergio SÁNCHEZ MARTINEZ 82 ESP F 1. Oviedo (ESP) 23.01.2010 1249
4:54.07 4. 4. Eamonn COGHLAN 52 IRL F 1. Inglewood (USA) 20.02.1987 1236
4:55.72 5. 5. Shadrack KORIR 78 KEN F 2. Birmingham (GBR) 17.02.2007 1219
4:56.09 6. 6. Laban ROTICH 69 KEN F 1. Birmingham (GBR) 14.02.1999 1215
4:56.23 7. 7. Jens-Peter HEROLD 65 GER F 1. Karlsruhe (GER) 06.03.1993 1214
4:56.30 8. 8. Augustine Kiprono CHOGE 87 KEN F 1. Aubiére (FRA) 09.02.2007 1213
4:56.40 9. 9. Noah NGENY 78 KEN F 1. Liévin (FRA) 25.02.2001 1212
4:56.87 10. 10. Andrés Manuel DÍAZ 69 ESP F 2. Birmingham (GBR) 14.02.1999 1207