Kiwi Aroha Nuku cops doping ban

Manawatu representative Aroha Nuku has been banned from all rugby for two years after admitting a breach of New Zealand Rugby’s Anti-Doping Rules.

A judicial committee recently heard the case against Nuku, the result of a failed drug test taken after she played for the Manawatu Cyclones in their Round 4 match of the Farah Palmer Cup - the highest level of women's domestic rugby in New Zealand - on 22 September last year.

That test later revealed that both her A and B samples were positive for Methamphetamine and D-amphetamine/Dextroamphetamine.

Nuku claimed she took what she believed was Ritalin to help keep her awake on a 2.5 hour drive home to Hawera after training in Palmerston North. Her claims were supported by a teammate who also gave evidence at the hearing.

Drug Free Sport NZ noted in the hearing that Nuku had attended a mandatory seminar earlier that season and on the night she was drug tested, she declared the use of two supplements and hay fever tablets, but did not declare the use of Ritalin earlier that week.

The judicial committee found that despite some misgivings, they accepted Nuku’s evidence about how the banned substances came to be present in the drug test. Because methamphetamine was not a specified substance and only prohibited in-competition, its use out-of-competition and in a context to keep awake while driving, could not be considered intentional under the provisions of the NZR’s Anti-Doping Rules and accordingly a two-year suspension was imposed.

Nuku’s suspension from all rugby for two years was backdated to begin from 22 September 2017.

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