Bodybuilding: Two-year steroid abuse ban for Mr NZ

Moe Moussaoui

Mr New Zealand bodybuilder Moe Moussaoui has been banned for two years after testing positive to two anabolic steroids.

A sample taken from Moussaoui in October - shortly before he won the Mr New Zealand title - was positive to testosterone and stanozolol.

Stanozolol is the steroid which caused Ben Johnson to be stripped of the 100m gold in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Moussaoui this month told the Herald that a New Zealand Federation of Body Builders tribunal had imposed no penalty.

The federation refuses to make the outcome public, but it is revealed in drug-testing results released by the New Zealand Sports Drug Agency this week.

The agency oversees doping control measures in New Zealand and records the outcomes.

Its report does not name athletes but only one body builder is listed as having tested positive to steroids in a sample taken last October, the month Moussaoui acknowledges he gave a sample which proved to be positive for steroids.

Moussaoui previously told the Herald that the tribunal had believed him and he had cleared his name.

The Weekend Herald has confirmation that Moussaoui is the athlete banned for two years.

Asked to comment this week, Moussaoui denied he had been banned.

He claimed another athlete before the tribunal with him had returned a steroid positive.

But the only other body builder in the sports drug agency's summary of doping infractions for the six months to December 31 last year was banned for six months for cannabis.

Sports drug agency executive director Graeme Steel said the summary was complete and listed every infraction, the drug and the outcome.

Had an athlete not been banned, this would have been recorded in the summary, Steel said.

In an interview earlier this month, Moussaoui said he had given the tribunal a letter stating he had passed doping tests in the Middle East around the time he failed his test in New Zealand, and had argued his positive could have resulted from a "mix-up".

"I studied the lab in Sydney and I told them [the tribunal] straightforward that they get over 100,000 blood and urine test[s] a day ... It could easily have been mixed with somebody else's."

This is contradicted by the World Anti-Doping Agency's report of testing conducted by its accredited laboratories which records that Sydney processed 7738 samples last year.

Steel rejected Moussaoui's claim that he was not kept properly informed during the process.

"Athletes have the opportunity to raise concerns about the testing process with the agency prior to any decision being made in relation to a positive test," Steel said.

"No submission was received from this athlete and it is disappointing to see athletes attempting to discredit the process publicly when no evidence is presented via the mechanism set up to properly consider complaints.

"No decision is made regarding a positive test until the B portion of the sample is analysed.

"In all cases [including those relating to this athlete] an independent person is appointed to verify the identity and integrity of the sample container if the athlete cannot be present."

Moussaoui owns supplements business Moe's Muscles, which has been a major sponsor of New Zealand Federation of Body Builders events. He has pushed unsuccessfully for the federation to scrap drug tests for all but national championships.

He told the Herald this month that his future was in international professional competitions which don't ban performance-enhancing drugs.

"At the end of the day, all bodybuilders want to get to pro level, and at pro level everyone knows that everyone is on the crap. So why be a hypocrite about it."