Posted: July 14, 2004

Athletics: Hellebuyck Disputes Positive Drug Test

From David Monti

(c) 2004 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

U.S. masters marathon record holder, Eddy Hellebuyck of Albuquerque, N.M., said through his wife and manager this morning that a positive drug test for the blood booster EPO is simply wrong and the athlete intends to fight the charge through arbitrations.

"We're definitely going to go to arbitration," said Shawn Hellebuyck, the athlete's wife, in a telephone interview. "We're pretty confident" that the positive finding on both the "A" and "B" samples will be reversed.

Hellebuyck, 43, is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Belgium. He represented Belgium in the 1996 Olympics in the marathon. He won last year's Twin Cities Marathon in a U.S. masters record of 2:12:46.

The Hellebuyck's have retained an attorney to lead their arbitration fight. According to Shawn, only about 15% of drug cases taken to arbitration are resolved in favor of the athletes, yet she expressed confidence that Eddy would be exonerated. "Its a very strong case," she added.

"In Eddy's case it would be cheaper to retire," reasoned Shawn who knows that fighting the charge will be expensive, especially for an athelte who is near the end of his career. "It's really ridiculous," she said of the charge.

Hellebuyck finished 8th at last February's U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Men's Marathon in Birmingham, Ala., clocking 2:15:36. The drug test came out of competition prior to that race.