Overview
- An in-competition urine test taken at the U18 Craven Week returned positive for 19-norandrosterone and 19-noretiocholanolone, metabolites of nandrolone, from a sample collected on 7 July 2025.
- The athlete requested B-sample analysis and did not challenge the integrity of the sample collection, and the B-sample confirmed the original laboratory finding.
- An Independent Doping Hearing Panel heard the case on 11 June 2026 and ruled the athlete failed to show how the steroid entered his system, imposing a four-year period of ineligibility treated as running from 25 August 2025 to 24 August 2029.
- Botes told the panel he used a product called Testojoint for shoulder pain that his father bought for cash from an unidentified seller, but the bottle had no receipt, manufacturer details, batch number or expiry date and the panel found this evidence insufficient to reduce the sanction.
- The ruling follows other recent junior cases and has put pressure on South African youth rugby to strengthen anti-doping education, tighten supplement controls and assess talent pathways that expose teenagers to professional recruiting and commercial pressures.