– I felt completely alone. This is how the then great talent Hadi Srour describes the event that took place in 2019. – It’s a bit like a dream. Or nightmares, maybe. One day you are a promising young boxer and think you are going to take over the world, describes the Norwegian, and continues: – I trained a lot, started to get a little known, and signed my first sponsorship agreement and professional contract. It looked very luminous. YOUNG AND PROMISING: Hadi Srour before a fight against Michael Mooney 2018. Photo: Tor Erik Schrøder / NTB Srour, who was named the Nordics’ best boxer regardless of weight class in 2017 and 2018, is clearly nervous. Now, for the first time, he will talk about how his life was turned upside down. – Then I box my fourth pro fight, and then a bolt of lightning comes out of the blue, and you get knocked down. SPEAKING OUT: Srour will meet news in autumn 2024. Photo: Jon Petrusson / news – Although I was done Five years ago, Srour was banned for four years for using the synthetic substance erythropeitin (EPO). The main character himself has always claimed his innocence, but he nevertheless experienced that he was left alone in the storm that followed. EMOTIONAL: Srour was very affected when the positive test was made public. Photo: Vidar Ruud / NTB – If you get your name associated with doping, then you get so many enemies, and you lose sponsors, and you get a name that people don’t want to use. And when you look like an Arab, even if you were born in Norway, it’s not very compatible, says Srour, who has roots from Lebanon. – Even though I wasn’t convicted then, I realized that I was done, he adds. The boxer says he assumed there had been a mistake, but in 2020 the verdict came. The Norwegian was sentenced to a four-year ban after both the A and B tests were positive. LEADER: Katharina Rise Photo: Gorm Kallestad / NTB Katharina Rise, head of the prosecution committee in Antidoping Norway, was confident in her case: – Two other independent accredited Wada laboratories came to the same result, she said in connection with the verdict. To this day, Srour is still the only top athlete in Norway who has been convicted of using EPO. In addition, race-goer Erik Tysse has been convicted of using Cera, a substance often referred to as third-generation EPO, while Steffen Kjærgaard admitted using EPO several years after he gave up cycling. IN ACTION: Hadi Srour has five wins and zero losses in his professional career. Photo: Tor Erik Schrøder Understands that people doubt In the beginning he fought to be cleared in public. He appeared at press conferences and spoke his case. But he was not believed. Photo: Skjermdump The sentence is merciless: “The sentencing committee does not doubt the competence of Srour’s experts, but they are not specialists in doping analyzes of EPO”, it reads. “The conclusion of the sentencing committee is that Srour has given a positive doping test with a clear preponderance of probability,” it further states. LOST: Celebrity lawyer Brynjar Meling (left) represented Hadi Srour in the sentencing committee. Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB – I understand that people can doubt me, especially when it is about something as serious as doping. But I know that I have not used synthetic EPO, and I have been supported by professionals who have reviewed the samples carefully and concluded that there are no grounds to claim that I have done anything illegal, says the boxer. When the verdict came, Srour’s will to fight gradually disappeared. At the same time, he withdrew from the public eye. In 2019: A large press corps had turned up at the press conference after the doping tests were known. Photo: Vidar Ruud – Do you feel that you have processed what has happened? – No. It’s not often that I talk about it here, and I’ve thought a lot about whether I should talk more about what I’ve been through, whether I should go to a psychologist. I’ve heard from people that I need to address it a bit more, but so far I haven’t had the time. I don’t think I cried until about five years after the doping case first came up, it’s a bit strange, replies Srour. Srour was born and raised in Norway, but has roots from Lebanon. – I’m very used to you from childhood that you always have to stand up. In the Middle East there is no depression, they say. There isn’t a word for it in Arabic, I think. Especially in minority families, depression is not recognized. And that was perhaps what came with it, then, he says. WITHDRAWN: Srour posed for photographers and the press at the start of both his career and the doping case. Then he disappeared. Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen / NTB Found new meaning in life news meets Srour outside the Faculty of Law in Oslo. The meeting place is by no means random. The 29-year-old has found a new meaning in life. When the dream of being able to make a living from sport disappeared, he decided to take up the entire upper secondary school again and began the hard law studies in Oslo. Photo: Jon Petrusson / news – I like challenges, and I didn’t want to be known as the boxer who drugged himself, but a good lawyer, he says firmly. – I used to think that boxing was the only thing in life. It was training every day and no ladies, no friends and no parties. But then I got it from a distance too. Five years later, I have realized that there are many other good things in life, he continues. NERVOUS: Talking about his tough time. Photo: Jon Petrusson / news Tear-soaked comeback Earlier this autumn, it was announced that the tie was to be replaced with boxing gloves and the reading room with the ring. The Nøtterøy boxer has finished his ban and wanted to get a taste of what it was like to compete again. It was not well received by the original opponent Jamshid Nazari: – Hadi does not deserve to box on Norwegian soil, the only thing he deserves is a beating. And I’ll give him that, he told Combatcorner.no. – People like him should not be role models, he told Fædrelandsvennen. Nazari had to withdraw before the match due to an injury, and it was therefore Ukrainian Yaroslav Kuzoma who met the Norwegian in the ring in the comeback. – The build-up before the match and the last three months, I really just hated the training. I’ve been training because that’s what I have to do to win the match, Srour said just before the match. SHOWMAN: The Nøtterøy man thrives in the ring. Pictured here before the ban. Photo: Tor Erik Schrøder / NTB In front of 4,000 spectators in Oslo Spektrum, he won his match against his Ukrainian opponent, to full cheers. Then came the tears. – It was very special. Cooler than I thought. And the fact that it became so emotional, I didn’t think I would stay. It gets a bit like that when you start to open up about this, then something happens to you. I guess I’ve been closed for a very long time, said Srour after the comeback was a fact. He will not rule out more games, but a good future is the most important thing for Hadi Srour. – I get it at school and good grades, he concludes. See all the goals from Norway – Kazakhstan – Pictures from TV 2 Direct 01:06 Responding to the “lookalike”: – Big compliment 01:06 Stepped on the opponent’s prize: – Not the point 00:36 Norwegian party night in Slovenia – pictures from TV 2 01: 58 Show more Published 20.11.2024, at 12.40 p.m
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Hadi Srour speaks out about the EPO ban, law studies and the future – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcast schedule
