Greg Smith, coach of Ethiopian-born Bendere Oboya, suspended after ASADA raid
Australia’s hopes of ‘the next Cathy Freeman’ setting the Tokyo track alight next year are in doubt after her American coach was suspended following an ASADA raid.
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EXCLUSIVE: The American coach of “the next Cathy Freeman” has been suspended following an ASADA raid.
Ethiopian-born Bendere Oboya was declared a star of the future after she won the 400m at the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2017 which immediately drew comparisons to Freeman, the 2000 Olympic champion.
Her remarkable story then captured the attention of the Australian public in the lead-up to the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
However, Oboya’s fairytale soured last year when her coach, Greg Smith, was raided by the drug enforcement agency.
It’s understood ASADA officials confiscated a laptop and mobile phone from his Sydney home.
Smith, 45, is believed to have still been registered as an athlete at the time of the raid given he’s been a regular competitor in Masters competitions.
As a result of the ASADA investigation, Athletics Australia were advised of issues surrounding Smith which resulted in the national body terminating his official coaching accreditation.
Oboya, 18, has stood by her coach despite being unable to work with him and Smith is expected to be in the crowd at Homebush Stadium this weekend to watch her chase her first national 400m title.
The suspension has caused significant angst with Oboya refusing to engage with Athletics Australia’s high performance department who have earmarked her as a key performer looking ahead to the Tokyo Olympics.
ASADA has refused to comment on the Smith investigation.
Smith gained infamy in rugby league circles 20 years ago when the former American football player played a single match for the Newcastle Knights.
It has been described as one of the all-time terrible NRL performances given he dropped the ball several times and could barely make a tackle.
Smith had been a promising track and field athlete in the American college system before briefly making it in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1996.
His gridiron career only lasted 48 hours before he was cut by the Eagles.
He then emerged in Sydney during the 1997 Rugby League World Sevens where he played three matches with the representative USA team before going on to play in the west Metropolitcan competition.
Smith was then invited to train with the Knights and earnt a contract late in the pre-season. A spate of injuries saw him make his debut in round three but after that one game he was never seen or heard of again.
He has since become a prominent athletics coach in Sydney’s western suburbs and that was where he met Oboya in early 2016.
At the time the inexperienced teenager had a personal best for the 400m of 1:15.00, however inside 12 months she’d lowered that mark dramatically to 53.02sec.
Oboya was born in Gambela, Ethiopia, and moved to Australia as a three-year-old with her parents and five siblings.
At the 2018 national championships she posted a new PB of 51.94sec in narrowly finishing second to Anneliese Rubie.
That performance moved Oboya to third on the Australian all-time junior rankings, behind only Freeman and two-time world 400m hurdles champion Jana Pittman.
Originally published as Greg Smith, coach of Ethiopian-born Bendere Oboya, suspended after ASADA raid
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