Athletics: JADCO admits errors in Campbell-Brown case

Anti-doping body acknowledges inconsistency in sample collection.

KINGSTON: Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (Jadco) has admitted to procedural breaches during its collecting of a sample from two-time 200 metres Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown in 2013.

The 31-year-old Jamaican’s sample taken at last May’s Jamaica Invitational Meet in Kingston, tested positive for a diuretic HCT and resulted in her being handed a two-year ban by the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF), which was overturned in February by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

CAS were scathing in their written report, released on Tuesday, outlining the reasons for finding in Campbell-Brown’s favour.

They described it as ‘deplorable and gives rise to the most serious concerns about the overall integrity of the Jamaican Athletics Administrative Association’s anti-doping processes, as exemplified in this case by the flaws in Jadco’s sample collection and its documentation’.

Jadco issued a statement in reply admitting the error, saying, “Jadco acknowledges that some procedures carried out in the sample collection process on May 4, 2013, at the Jamaica Invitational Meet at the National Stadium, in Kingston, were inconsistent with the World Anti-Doping Agency International Standards. Specifically, no partial sample kits were used in the collection process.”

Campbell-Brown was one of several high profile Jamaican athletes to fail drugs tests last year.

Former men’s 100m world record holder Asafa Powell and his training partner 2008 Olympic women’s 100 metres silver medallist Sherone Simpson also received 18-month bans from a Jadco tribunal last week after testing positive for a banned stimulant, Oxilofrine.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 18^th, 2014.

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