The World Anti-Doping Agency says "there was no effective operation" of drugs testing in Jamaica in the run-up to London 2012
The World Anti-Doping Agency is to investigate anti-doping procedures in Jamaica following claims that out-of-competition drug-testing was virtually non-existent on the Caribbean island in the run-up to the London Olympic Games.
Wada has confirmed that it will be carrying out an “extraordinary” audit of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (Jadco) after its former executive director Renee Anne Shirley went public with her concerns about the near breakdown of the commission’s out-of-competition testing programme between January and July last year.
David Howman, the Wada director general, said that there was “a significant gap of no testing” in the months leading up to the London Games and that the Wada was sufficiently concerned to launch an investigation.
In an interview with the Associated Press news agency, Howman said: “There was a period of – and forgive me if I don’t have the number of months right – but maybe five to six months during the beginning part of 2012 where there was no effective operation. No testing. There might have been one or two, but there was no testing. So we were worried about it, obviously.”
Howman’s comments appear to corroborate claims made by Shirley that the number of drug tests carried out on Jamaican athletes was woefully inadequate.
Shirley, who took over at Jadco in July 2012 and left in February this year, said that the commission conducted 96 in-competition tests in 2012 in the build-up to the Olympics, all of them in May and June at the Kingston Invitational meeting and at the Jamaican trials.
However, out-of-competition tests, which are considered a far more effective anti-doping weapon because they contain the element of surprise, took place in only two out of the first seven months of 2012, with 10 tests being carried out in February and a solitary test in April.
Howman that said the long periods without any testing at all clearly raised alarm bells with the world agency.
“No testing,” he said. “There might have been one or two, but there was no testing. So we were worried about it, obviously.”
He added that although Wada had audited Jamaica’s drug-testing systems in the past, the latest planned audit was in direct response to Shirley’s revelations.
He admitted that Wada had been unaware of the testing voids until Shirley went public with her allegations in a letter to The Gleaner newspaper in Jamaica and an interview with the American magazine, Sports Illustrated.
Describing the case as “high priority”, Howman said that Wada officials would be paying Jadco an “extraordinary visit” either at the end of this year or the start of 2014, though he also expressed frustration that a request by Wada to begin its inspection sooner had been turned down. “It doesn’t over-impress us,” Howman said.
Wada’s intervention is a further blow to Jamaica’s reputation as a sprinting powerhouse, which has been rocked by the positive drug tests recorded by stars such as Veronica Campbell-Brown, Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson this year.
Campbell-Brown, the three-times Olympic gold medallist, was found guilty this month of taking a banned diuretic but was let off with a warning by her Jamaican disciplinary panel.
The International Association of Athletics Federations has yet to decide whether it will appeal against the leniency of the sanction. Powell and Simpson face disciplinary hearings in January.
Despite the inadequacies of Jadco’s out-of-competition testing programme, leading Jamaican athletes such as Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake would still have been subject to announced drug tests by the IAAF as they are in the world governing body’s international testing pool.
The IAAF confirmed that there was a “robust and comprehensive” drug-testing system for Jamaica’s elite athletes and that Bolt was tested more than a dozen times in 2012.
This summer, the entire Jamaican squad was drug-tested en masse when IAAF officials descended on their preparation camp ahead of the World Championships in Moscow.
Herbert Elliott, the Jadco chairman, said that Jamaican athletes were also subjected to intensive testing before the London Olympics at the country’s training camp in Birmingham, claiming drug-testers descended “in droves every day”.
Elliott has rejected the allegations made by Shirley as an exaggeration of the truth, claiming that she was fired by the Jadco board and that she had an axe to grind.
However, he did admit that Jadco had no cash when he was appointed chairman in February 2012 and that 400 of its testing kits were out of date and unusable.
He added that out-of-competition testing was also not feasible in many cases because athletes were preparing overseas for the Olympics.
Jamaica’s doping cases
Veronica Campbell-Brown: Tested positive for a banned diuretic in May and was found guilty of a doping violation this month, though she escaped with public reprimand by her Jamaican disciplinary panel. The International Association of Athletics Federations’ doping review board will examine her case within a week to consider whether to appeal against the leniency of the punishment.
Asafa Powell: Tested positive for the stimulant oxilofrine at the Jamaican trials in June and will face a disciplinary hearing in Kingston on Jan 14-15. The former 100m world record-holder has blamed the positive test on a new brand of supplements given to him by a Canadian trainer brought in by his agent, Paul Doyle.
Sherone Simpson: A training partner of Powell, Simpson tested positive for the same substance, oxilofrine, and also put the blame on supplements supplied by the Canadian trainer. Simpson’s hearing is on Jan 7-8. Since the failed drug test, she has parted company with her coach, Stephen Francis, and is currently training in Florida.
Allison Randall, Traves Smikle and Demar Robinson: Randall (discus) and Smikle (discus) are believed to have ingested a banned diuretic while Robinson (high jump) is thought to have tested positive for a steroid. The three lesser-known Jamaican athletes will all face disciplinary hearings in December.