Lombard scandal - Irish drugs battle a drop in the ocean

The real heroes of the Cathal Lombard saga are the drug testers and, in spite of everything, the athlete himself also deserves credit for admitting his guilt.

In the process he essentially gave due credit to the testers in marked contrast with other drug cheats who tried to lie their way out of trouble.

Lombard said he used the drug EPO because there is no other way of being competitive with others using performance-enhancing substances. In other words, the only way to compete with the cheats who have been dominating the sport was to join them.