The CAS criticise Jamaica’s drug testing procedures
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has criticized Jamaican anti-doping officials following errors in the drug testing of Veronica Campbell-Brown. Due to the mishandling of the drug tests Campbell-Brown was able to successfully appeal her two-year ban.
When Veronica Campbell-Brown was cleared of doping due to a series of serious mistakes that included systematic failings in collection procedures and also the possibility that her urine sample had been subjected to “environmental contamination”, the court of arbitration felt it was necessary to step in and uphold the appeal against a two-year doping ban.
The CAS issued a 58-page ruling explaining how the procedures for collecting urine samples could easily have resulted in a sample being contaminated with water or sweat from another person. It then questioned the entire Jamaican anti-doping operation.
The CAS stated: “In this case, the evidence before the panel establishes that the JAAA (Jamaica Athletic Administrative Association) has persistently failed to comply with the mandatory partial testing.
“That systematic and knowing failure, for which no reasonable explanation has been advanced, is deplorable and gives rise to the most serious concerns about the overall integrity of the JAAA’s anti-doping processes, as exemplified in this case by the flaws in JADCO’s (Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission) sample collection and its documentation.”
Jamaica needs to lead by example
In the last decade Jamaica has developed some of the world’s fastest sprinters. Since the Beijing Games in 2008, their men and women have dominated the 100m and 200m sprint races.
Usain Bolt is certainly the most famous name to come out of Jamaica in recent years, but other top class sprinters include Asafa Powell, Johan Blake, Michael Frater, Nesta Carter, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Samantha Henry-Robinson, Kerron Stewart, Schillonie Calvert and Veronica Campbell-Brown all winning silver and gold medals in the London 2012 Games.
With so many excellent athletes coming out of Jamaica they should have a robust drug testing procedure to ensure that cheating is not an option.
Partnership with Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has responded by saying that such errors will not happen again. New procedures will be put in place to ensure that there is no future risk of sample contamination.
This is not the first time that there have been concerns over the quality of testing by the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission. To address this the WADA has initiated a partnership between JADCO and the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES), which aims to develop new drug testing procedures and develop an ethical and professional approach to sample collection.
Jamaica made many changes in 2013 after eight of its top athletes tested positive for banned substances. During these changes the entire JADCO board resigned. Warren Blake, the Jamaican athletics federation president, explained to Reuters that there have already been major changes, one of which is the availability of partial sample kits.
Some athletes are not so optimistic. Coach Stephen Francis, who trained Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson, thinks that Jamaica should outsource its drug testing to agencies in other countries to ensure that there is no risk of bias or corruption.
With the Rio Games only two years away all athletes want to be sure that anti-doping measures are being properly enforced.