D'Arcy Waldegrave: Sportstalk host on the Black Sox 'seeking advice' after Venezuela’s Softball World Cup champion pitcher fails doping test

The champions of last month's Softball World Cup are under a doping cloud, after Venezuela pitcher Maiker Pimentel returned a positive drug test.

Pimentel has been provisionally suspended for taking the anabolic steroid stanozolol, which promotes and enhances lean muscle growth.

He was named tournament MVP after pitching Venezuela to victory over the Black Sox in the final.

Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave explains further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sport with tab Multi's fast DZ and more codes are
eighteen bit responsible. Waard Grave sports talk hosters with me,
Hello does hello Heather? Did we know that Wall of
Stiti and to Mighty Williams are coming back?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Did we?

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Yeah? Okay, yeah, no, that was all first plan. They
got through their injury issues. They're well ready to go.
It's a matter of where they'll be picked. Will they
be picked to start in the fifteen? Will they both
be in the twenty three? What effect do they want?
So anyone's guess, it's as as good as yours. I'd
say that To Mighty will start, although I had a

(00:33):
discussion news. Someone says, no, no, no, no, you want
him as an impact player off the bench, to walk
all over the top of the Argentines. And then, of
course what Atiti? Where do you put them in? He's
more likely to start off the bench, I'd say, covering
some positions. They can move around that loose forward trio.
But nobody knows, unless, of course, you pretend to be Rassi,

(00:53):
Erasmus and an outer team on a Monday.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
But Scott, is that unusual?

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Scott, Yeah, it was a Tuesday. Well they didn't you
said this is I don't care about my team. I'm
gonna worry about my team. I'll let it out there
on Monday. You guys can work it out. It probably
won't be much of a resemblance to the team that
runs out in the game, but that's what that's what
Rassie is doing. We'll find out on Friday morning who
the team is. I don't know if there'll be too

(01:17):
many changes. You would like to think that playing with
the makeup and the numbers of the side before the
South Africans work could either work really well give some
guys some time on the ground, or it could blow
up in your face. Because you want solidity of connection
and combinations, and I think we saw that in the
game last week. There were still some areas where the

(01:40):
flow wasn't there because the players weren't quite used to
playing with each other. So I would like to see
continuity in the silly.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
How do you rate the chances that the Argie's got
a fright and come back stronger?

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Not very high?

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Why not?

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well, they would have got a fright, they'd like to
come back stronger, but I don't see where they would
come back stronger. The All Blacks were they weren't perfect
by any stretched the imagination. They've got so much more
room to build than Argentina has and the Dominus we
had and set peace. You can't just turn that around.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
No, fair enough. You really can't tell me about the
scandal in Venezuelan softball.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Okay, there's this guy way you laughing. It does sound funny.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
That's very niche, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Okay, Well, the Black Socks are seeking advice because their pitcher,
Micah Pimentel has failed a doping test. This is the
Venezuelan Yeah, so he was part of the team that
what he pitched Venezuela. He's like the boss man of
the team that pitched the defensive guy, the half back,
if you will, the quarterback, sorry, or the first five
the very very important. But if he's he's got to

(02:48):
get a B sample through, right, Yah, sample comes through.
The question is is do World Softball take the title
off Venezuela and in turn give it to the runners up,
which is New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
I mean tell me, I'm going I'm going to sound
so stupid right now.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
No, no, no, you're not. You're going to sound interested.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
I mean, doping when you're weightlifting. I can see that
that you know, presents a material advantage to you. But
if all you're doing is throwing a ball at a
dude who is going to hit it, is it really?

Speaker 2 (03:16):
I mean, yeah, it's all recovery time. It's all how
much you can stay fit, how long between workouts and
keeping your body up. They use that as an aid
between the games themselves. What I'm fascinated by anabolic steroids? Mate,
there it's Stanozolo. This is like so old and this

(03:37):
is Venezuela. I don't think they're quite up to the
program when.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
It comes to you've got to use the stuff that
no one knows about.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Stuff on that one. So a bit of trouble.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
I'm just not convinced.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
This is it. But if your leader of men is
there and he's like the go to guy, and that's
what the picture is and sol and and he's cheating,
do you punish the whole team or do you just
punish him?

Speaker 1 (04:05):
Now you punished the whole team.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Do you remember back two thousand and eight, I want
to say, in China the Jamaican four by one hundred team, yeah,
which Usain Bolt was a part before he just smeared
his copybook by doing personal adverts or whatever it is.
That team lost their gold medal because one member of.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
That till you have got it done for drugs nothing
drugs have never done in isolation. Everyone knows everyone.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
So you reckon there's more there and the like as well.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
And peer pressure is the greatest thing. And if they
know they're all going to lose their their their ranking.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
I think it's about an example totally all the time.
It's like, right, we don't know what it's going to
do to your bit that's banned and as a direct result,
you've lost this and Venezuela will be a prio, won't he?

Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, absolutely, well we'll see about it.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Well, we'll find out when the b sumple comes.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Fascinating. Thank you very much, Darcy.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
I'm going to talk bringa Paul tonight on the show
about world rankings because New Zealand somehow the All Blacks
are number one in the world ahead of so that
and we haven't beaten them and I don't know how long.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
It's a funny thing. Thank you, Darcy Watergrave Sports Store host.
He'll be back at seven for more from Hither Duplessy
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