VCB gets public warning

[Assasin]

by the Disciplinary Committee

[Gamma]

she was effectively banned for 5/6 months ....

[Jangle]

Mockery is the decent word for .......Time some people and authorities start get sued in Jamaica.

[Karl]

Vcb Vindicated But Serious Questions Linger

VCB VINDICATED BUT SERIOUS QUESTIONS LINGER


The Statement from the Jamaica Athletic Administrative Association was terse:

“The disciplinary committee has issued a ruling that Veronica Campbell Brown has committed an anti doping violation, contrary to IAAF Rule 32.2a. They have recommended that a reprimand without any period of ineligibility would be appropriate. All relevant parties involved have been duly informed.”

Good news for the athlete and great news for Jamaicans who support Jamaica’s superstar sprinter, who has represented this country so well ever since she was a teenager. Veronica Campbell Brown is a two-time Olympic 200-metre champion, and an Olympic sprint relay gold medalist. She has also won two Olympic silver medals and two bronze medals.

The conservative and very private young woman from Clarke’s Town in Trelawny, has also distinguished herself at the IAAF World Athletics Champions where she won gold in the 100 metres in 2007 and gold in the 200 metres in 2011. She also has seven silver medals from these championships.

In addition to that medal haul VCB, as she is affectionately known by her hoard of devoted fans, has won two gold medals at 60m at the World Indoor Championships, three gold and a silver medal at the World Athletics finals, two gold and a silver at the World Junior Championships, two gold at the CAC Junior Championships, six gold, a silver and bronze at the CARIFTA Games, two gold at the World Youth Championships, add to that three more gold at the Youth Level at the CAC’s and three silver medals at the Commonwealth Games. Overall, that’s 19 gold medals, 16 silver and three bronze medals at major championships from the youth to senior level making her one of Jamaica’s most celebrated athletes.

She apparently has come out a winner again but there are still questions to be answered.

On June 14, news emerged that VCB had failed a drug test after competing at the Jamaica International Invitational on May 4, right here in Jamaica. The news was met with disbelief as Jamaicans were shocked. “How could this happen?” many asked. Others took the more ‘traditional’ view that she was being set up. Before long the IAAF’s Communications Man Nick Davies did the unprecedented, releasing a statement which pretty much declared that on the face of it, Mrs. Campbell Brown seemed to have committed a minor infraction. The IAAF doesn’t usually comment on ongoing cases, but this time they saw it fit to do so.

But before we continue here is what IAAF Rule 32.2a says.

(a) Presence of a Prohibited Substance or its Metabolites or Markers in an Athlete’s Sample. (i) it is each Athlete’s personal duty to ensure that no Prohibited Substance enters his body. Athletes are responsible for any Prohibited Substance or its Metabolites or Markers found to be present in their Samples. Accordingly, it is not necessary that intent, fault, negligence or knowing Use on the Athlete’s part be demonstrated in order to establish an anti-doping rule violation under Rule 32.2 (a).(ii) sufficient proof of an anti-doping rule violation under Rule32.2 (a) is established by either of the following: presence of a Prohibited Substance or its Metabolites or Markers in the Athlete’s A Sample where the Athlete waives analysis of the B Sample and the B Sample is not analysed; or, where the Athlete’s B Sample is analysed and the analysis of the Athlete’s B Sample confirms the presence of the Prohibited Substance or its Metabolites or Markers found in the Athlete’s A Sample.(iii) except those Prohibited Substances for which a quantitative threshold is specifically identified in the Prohibited List,the presence of any quantity of a Prohibited Substance or its Metabolites or Markers in an Athlete’s Sample shall constitute an anti-doping rule violation.(iv) as an exception to the general application of Rule 32.2(a),the Prohibited List or International Standards may establish special criteria for the evaluation of Prohibited Substances that can also be produced endogenously.

As I mentioned earlier, the news of the AAF emerged on June 14, but other than statements from Campbell-Brown’s manager Claude Bryan and Davies, that were released shortly afterwards, there was silence from all parties concerned until in late August when we were told that the hearing into VCB’s case would be held within the first week of September. Let me add here that it is the athlete’s right to request an in-camera hearing.

However, it still came as a surprise that the hearing was convened at a ‘secret’ location and the media was being barred. The site of the hearing was moved when on the first day, the media got wind of where the hearing was being held and descended on the location. What was discovered then was that VCB had lured former Prime Minister Percival Patterson out of retirement to defend her. He and noted attorney Howard Jacobs, who has represented more than 75 athletes in doping cases mostly about performance enhancing drugs. Those athletes include Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, and Floyd Landis. Together, Jacobs and Patterson formed a formidable team that presented VCB’s case before retired Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe, Dr. Aggrey Irons and Lincoln Eatmon.

Almost a month passed before the JAAA released the statement on October 2, 2014.

The questions that still linger are significant given the nature of the allegations, the IAAF rule and past precedent.

What is the diuretic that was found in Mrs Campbell Brown’s system that she is ultimately responsible for? My sources tell me that it was not Forusemide as was reported in the media but hydrochlorothiazide, a diuretic water pill used to treat fluid retention in people with congestive heart failure, cirrhosis of the liver, kidney disorders or edema caused by taking steroids or estrogen. It is also used to treat high blood pressure.

We are also told that the substance was not among several prescriptions submitted by the athlete when she was being tested.

There are good reasons why these questions are relevant.

In 2010, another of Jamaica’s star athletes Shelly Ann Frazer Pryce tested positive for a pain killer Oxycodone. It was a situation where the athlete had undergone a procedure on her mouth and had traveled to Shanghai to compete at a meet. On arrival she was treated by IAAF doctors, treatment that turned out to be insufficient. In desperation she turned to her coach who administered the narcotic allowing the athlete to compete. She did and performed poorly, most likely a combination of the narcotic, jet lag and the energy expended in trying to tolerate the pain she was experiencing prior to the competition. For her failure to declare, Frazer-Pryce was banned for six months because ultimately, according to rule 32.2a, she was responsible for what was in her system.

How then is VCB’s case different that would allow her to escape sanction? This is especially relevant when one considers that in the past athletes have been banned from periods ranging from three months to two years for HCTZ.

If the IAAF ratifies the recommendation it could suggest some form of collusion, especially when we consider Davies’ comments and the case of Trinidadian sprinter Semoy Hackett, who was withdrawn from the World Championships in Moscow because the IAAF questioned the recommendation of Trinidad’s athletic federation to clear her.

Hackett had failed a drug test at the NCAA Championships and forced her school Louisiana State to forfeit the championship.

The eyes of the world have been firmly fixed on Jamaica since 2008 when our athletes exploded at the Beijing Olympics. Our drug testing administration and testing have been under scrutiny and in many instances have been found wanting. An estimated 18 Jamaicans have returned adverse findings in that time and just recently, a month after news about VCB surfaced, big names like Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson, also returned adverse findings. That means that since 2008, Steve Mullings, Yohan Blake, Shelly Ann Frazer, VCB, Powell and Simpson, some of the island’s biggest names have failed drug tests. The recent Ann Shirley scandal that dropped right after the World Championships in Moscow, would have only served to worsen our plight.

So while we celebrate with Mrs Campbell Brown, many of those critics will be looking on and wondering how the disciplinary panel arrived at this recommendation of a public warning for Mrs Campbell Brown.

“What a farce. I guess strict liability doesn’t matter. 18 months should have been the minimum ban for what she was taking if she had some mitigating factor. See Merritt, LaShawn. If she was taking a banned substance without a TUE (therapeutic use exemption), that is a problem she should have to deal with. I would expect CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) to alter the punishment, but this is part of the reason that anti-doping enforcement sucks: some countries simply don’t give a s…what their athletes are doing.”

Comments like this that appeared on a Track and Field news forum are already starting to pop up in sporting websites across the globe, bringing into question the validity of the recommendation of the panel.

If people are to take us seriously we have to be transparent. We have to stand up to scrutiny and the secrecy surrounding this case has not helped. In fact, this will further fuel arguments put forward by people like Victor Conte that the Jamaican anti-doping authorities are not operating above board.

The JAAA I am told has said that they are seeking permission to release the transcript of the hearing. That I feel would be a good first step into helping clear the air and could go some way into answering the questions that still linger because for justice to be done it must also appear to have been done.

http://gleanerblogs.com/sports/?p=2124

[Karl]

All I have to say I hope the findings stand...

...and VCB graces the track again.