Police deny they "held up" sports doping investigations

Finnish discus coach caught with banned drugs on eve of World Championships

print this

The Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) reported in a TV current affairs programme on Friday evening that Vantaa police had seized a substantial amount of banned performance-enhancing drugs, including growth hormones and testosterone, from the home of one of the country's top discus coaches, Kari Mattila. Police had been called to the house because of a domestic dispute in July.
     
Detective Chief Superintendent Thomas Elfgren of the National Bureau of Investigation, Finland's central criminal police, confirmed that an investigation is ongoing into the possession of suspected doping substances, but he denied all allegations that the investigations would voluntarily have been held up because of the proximity of the IAAF World Championships, which began only hours after the television programme was aired.
      According to YLE, Kari Mattila had long coached discus thrower Timo Tompuri, a member of the Finnish team at the 10th World Championships in Helsinki.
      However, Tompuri denied that he has recently had any cooperation with Mattila. While saying that they have been friends for a long time, Tompuri stressed that he has been compiling his own training regimen already for years.
     
Finland's athletics world championships team leader Jarmo Mäkelä said on Saturday that the suspect's former protégé is clean. He also confirmed that "Tompuri and Mattila's coaching cooperation ended entirely at the beginning of October in 2004". Moreover, he asserted that Mattila has no official connections to the Finnish Sports Federation or to the Finnish team at the World Championships.
      Both Mattila and Mäkelä attest that this incident has nothing to do with Timo Tompuri. Mattila declared the substances were for his own use.
     
Timo Tompuri himself was outraged about the allegations. He was particularly upset by the timing of the news, just when he was scheduled to take part in Saturday's qualifying events for the discus final. He suspects a leak within the Finnish police and has threatened to take the matter to court. Tompuri did not qualify for the final. His throw of 59.11 was well short of the required distance.
      Tompuri said that he had been aware of the incident since Mattila had informed him about it by telephone some time ago. Matters were confused somewhat by the fact that in a recent online media guide to the World Championships, Mattila was described as Tompuri's coach. On the Saturday of the games, however, Tompuri was listed as coaching himself.
      A further puzzle, eagerly taken up by Monday's late-edition tabloids, is that Mattila's name appeared as Tompuri's trainer on the information handed out at the Finnish national championships in July. One explanation offered was that it was merely a ruse to ensure Mattila got a free pass to the games.
     
This is not the first time for Tompuri to be involved in a suspected doping incident.
      About three years ago, the French customs discovered substances classified as doping materials hidden in the car driven by Tompuri and shot-putter Ville Tiisanoja. Based on the received clarifications, it was then established that the incident was comparable to smuggling, and that it had to be construed as a doping violation.
      The national athletics federation (Finnish Athletics) then slapped both Ville Tiisanoja and Timo Tompuri with a temporary ban on competition in December of 2002. However, the athletes appealed to the athletes' legal protection committee and eventually got away with a caution.
     
The news of the Mattila incident brought a strange sense of déjà vu to those who remember the 2001 doping scandal in which several Finnish skiers were caught using banned drugs at the Nordic skiing world championships in the city of Lahti. (see links)
      Heads rolled within the Finnish Ski Federation, and the six men and women, Olympic medallists among them, all received two-year competition bans.
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Temporary ban for shot-putter Ville Tiisanoja and discus thrower Timo Tompuri (19.12.2002)
  Lahti doping scandal: Medicolegal Authority says doctors can disclose hormone use by skiers (21.4.2004)
  Police: Former skiing head coach smuggled doping substances into Finland (25.3.2002)
  Finnish skiers handed down two-year suspensions by Finnish Ski Association (23.4.2001)

Links:
  Finnish Athletics

Helsingin Sanomat