Sport
Jamaican sprinter Sherone Simpson banned until Dec. 20
Sherone Simpson. PHOTO/Getty Images
Jamaican Olympic sprinter Sherone Simpson has been banned until December 20 after testing positive for a banned stimulant, a disciplinary panel announced Tuesday.
The 3-member panel of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission said it would soon release its reasons for issuing an 18-month ban, which begins from the June 21, 2013 sample collection date. The Olympic 4×100-meter relay gold and silver medalist, along with former 100-meter world record holder Asafa Powell, tested positive for oxilofrone at Jamaica’s national championships in June.
In a brief announcement at a conference center in Kingston, commission chairman Lennox Gayle would only say the panel unanimously found that “Miss Simpson was negligent in all the circumstances.”
The 29-year-old sprinter did not attend Thursday’s session. Her attorney, Kwame Gordon, said she was training in the U.S. and was not able to fly back in time.
“It was very difficult for her to be here today,” he said.
Simpson previously said she was not a “cheat” and had never intentionally taken the banned stimulant. Like her former teammate Powell, she blamed a newly hired Canadian trainer for providing her with a supplement that led to the positive test.
Simpson has said that she researched the “Epiphany D1” supplement for up to 14 hours online before taking it, and that nothing “raised a red flag or an alarm bell.” The veteran sprinter acknowledged that she did not disclose the new supplement on doping control forms.
