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Jamaica reeling over positive doping tests
By Christopher Galakoutis
| Saturday, July 25 2009 5:11:39 PM |
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Tears are flowing down the streets of Kingston this weekend, as less than a year following Jamaica’s sprinting dominance at the Beijing Olympics, the country is in a state of shock from the news that five of its leading sprinters tested positive for a banned substance at last month’s Jamaican Championships.
So important is track & field to the Caribbean nation that prime minister Bruce Golding convened a high level emergency meeting yesterday to discuss the matter.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has confirmed the reports, but no names have been officially released. The Italian newspaper “Gazzetta dello Sport,” however, has named the five Jamaican athletes as sprinters Yohan Blake and Marvin Anderson, Commonwealth Games 100m champion Sherry-Ann Brooks, as well as 400m runners Allodin Fothergill and Lansford Spence.
Blake, 19, is the training partner of world 100m record holder Usain Bolt. Like Bolt before him, Blake has recorded an incredible improvement in his 100m progression, going from 10.33 seconds in 2006 to a 9.93 in Paris last week. Blake’s best result in 2008 was a 10.27.
According to news reports, an unnamed Jamaican source has stated that the substance in question is a stimulant and not an anabolic steroid. In addition, Dr Herb Elliott, a member of both the IAAF's Medical and Anti-Doping Commission and the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission, told the “Jamaica Gleaner” the substance was nothing "major."
Stimulant use, if confirmed, is anything but minor, having plagued the sport of cycling for years. Stimulants are used in drug cocktails and depending on the substance, could be used before a competition to improve future performance or during a competition for immediate results. Certain substances classified as stimulants have also been known to be capable of hiding the abuse of more serious drugs such as steroids and other related substances.
The most recent Jamaican athlete to have tested positive was sprinter Julien Dunkley, who was dropped from the Beijing Olympic team after he tested positive for a banned drug in a sample taken at 2008 national trials. He is serving a two-year ban.
Since Beijing, Jamaican officials have been unequivocal about how wrong those skeptical of Jamaica’s successes are, stating nothing but hard work has produced their country’s eye-popping results. The world’s eyes upon them, those same officials are hard at work themselves this weekend trying to understand what might have gone terribly wrong indeed.
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Chris Galakoutis is a business and sports writer, as well as the founder and managing editor of HellenicAthletes.com. He can be reached at Chris@hellenicathletes.com
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