Drug scandal explains triple winner's no-show

The mystery surrounding three-times champion Rebekah Keat's no-show at last month's Port of Tauranga Half Ironman has been solved.
Keat was last week provisionally suspended by Triathlon Australia after allegedly testing positive to the banned steroid nandrolone.
Organisers of the Tauranga Half Ironman were puzzled when Keat was initially keen to return to defend her title at Mount Maunganui before suddenly withdrawing from the race.
Now they know why.
Keat allegedly tested positive for nandrolone following her stunning debut Ironman performance in the inaugural Western Australia race in November.
Keat has not been formally identified by Triathlon Australia, with her appeal still to be heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland but her identity was revealed this week by several publications across the Tasman.
If the former world junior champion loses her appeal it will be good news for two Kiwi competitors who trailed her in the Perth race.
Former New Zealand Ironman champion Karyn Ballance - a two-times winner of the Tauranga Half Ironman - will be promoted to first place and will also qualify for the world championships in Hawaii, while Taupo's Fiona Docherty will move into second place.
Keat beat Ballance, the pre-race favourite, by 21 minutes, with her time of 9hrs3min the fastest debut Ironman time ever by a woman.
The 27-year-old Queensland triathlete won in Tauranga from 2002-2004, with race organisers assuming she was injured after pulling out in mid-December.
Half Ironman event director Jane Patterson said yesterday news of the drug cloud had clarified Keat's no-show.
"Rebekah initially entered the Port of Tauranga Half Ironman but subsequently withdrew and at the time of withdrawing she never gave us a reason why she had pulled out.
"It has now become obvious what the reasons were.
"We're disappointed for Rebekah but we're also extremely disappointed for the sport of triathlon."
Keat has closer connections with Tauranga than just racing and winning here three times.
She has been sponsored for the past 18 months by Tauranga-based bed and bedroom furniture manufacturer Design Mobel, with managing director Quentin Quin also acting as Keat's manager.
Design Mobel now appear to have distanced themselves from Keat following her alleged positive drugs test.
"Design Mobel do not have a direct link to Rebekah Keat effective early this year," Quin said yesterday.
"I do have an involvement with her but I am not in a position to talk with you about this latest issue."
Triathlon Australia has issued Keat with an infraction notice and has referred the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The suspension will prevent Keat from competing in events conducted by or sanctioned by Triathlon Australia and it could take up to several weeks before a hearing is conducted.
Taken either orally or intravenously and used legally as a hormone replacement therapy, the steroid nandrolone is also found naturally in the body in small amounts.
A legal limit of two nanogrammes per millilitre of urine is deemed acceptable but Triathlon Australia president Chris Hewitt would not disclose the alleged level of the steroid found in Keat's sample.
The standard penalty for such an offence was a two-year ban from competition.
Keat's is the second high profile doping case in ironman competitions - Germany's Nina Kraft was stripped of her world title won in Hawaii in November, after testing positive for EPO.
One of New Zealand's most high-profile nandrolone cases involved former Olympic swimmer Trent Bray.
Bray tested positive for nandrolone during a routine drugs test in November 1999, although he was exonerated six months later when the Court of Appeal upheld a district court ruling that the amount of time taken for his urine sample to be tested was too long.
Bray spent $70,000 clearing his name but the appeal ruling came too late to revive the double Commonwealth Games silver medalist's career.
Bray says the cause of his positive result was a mystery but he suspected contaminated supplements.
He was caught before it was confirmed supplements could be contaminated.
Last year's Australian Tennis Open started with a nandrolone controversy when it was announced prior to the tournament that Brit Greg Rusedski had failed a drug test for the steroid.
He too fought the charges and was later exonerated.
Argentinian tennis star Guillermo Coria was banned in 2002 for seven months after returning a positive drugs test for nandrolone. What's puzzling in Keat's case is that she isn't the instant success indicative of drug use.
Though young as Ironman athletes go - she turned 27 this week - Keat started her career in ITU World Cup racing and had distinguished results in the junior ranks, winning the junior world championship in 1997.
By 2000 Keat switched to become a superb mid-distance specialist of brilliant talent. In four years she won eight half ironman races and lost only two.
Sources in Australia confirm that Keat has applied for a hearing from the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland. The hearing will not actually take place in Switzerland but in its Oceania division.
Should Keat lose her case she still has the right of an appeal to the actual court in Switzerland.