Berasategui confesses to doping
About a month after testing positive at the 2013 Bilbao Triathlon, Virginia Berasatagui called a press conference today and confessed to having doped recently and will thus forgo pursuing the B sample.
According to deia.com Berasategui was accompanied by her father and other local political and sports figures, and started with the following written statement with tears in her eyes. "I am sad to end my career like this, but I'm glad I made the decision to confront the reality of things and tell the truth."
Berastegui then added "I have decided that I will not appeal because I know my guilt. Could have tried to move on, look for external causes, but why? I have decided to face the truth, because life goes on and I continue to be open and honest."
She also asked for "forgiveness from all the people who I have cheated, especially those people who have always believed in me, my sponsors, institutions, all athletes, amateur and professional. I know my act of weakness has been great but it comforts me to think that there are many people that despite the action that I made, the first victim I am, forgive me."
She did however seem to say that what happened was really a late career mistake influenced by pressure, advancing age and various injuries and pointed to a flawless tested career.
"I am here to stand up and apologize. Throughout my career I have spent hundreds of controls and has always been clear that I played fair. Now, at the end of my career, I have fallen in the worst mistake in which an athlete can fall," stated Berasategui.
As we had mentioned in our previous article, she actually did test positive after winning Ironman Lanzarote in 2005, but that case was eventually thrown out on a technicality.
