Sport
Veronica Campbell-Brown cleared of doping because of testing flaws – CAS
– the drug-testing officer failed to record any information about the partial sample in the doping control form.
CAS said Campbell-Brown placed the unsealed container on the floor while she went to get water and do exercises in an effort to produce more urine. She also washed her hands in a sink in a nearby bathroom. It was up to an hour before she produced enough further urine.
The CAS panel ruled out deliberate spiking of the sample but said “environmental contamination” was possible.
The court relied heavily on testimony from Peter Sever, a professor of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics and head of the department of clinical pharmacology at Imperial College in London.
He said the “most likely explanation” for Campbell-Brown’s positive test was contamination of her sample through sweat or water containing HCT, a common medication for high blood pressure.
CAS said Campbell-Brown could have come into contact with HCT when she touched bottles stored in ice and washed her hands in the toilet. Contaminated sweat or water also could have entered the sample through the container’s small spout, it said.
Sever noted that 3 out of 100 athletes tested in the Kingston stadium over a 2-month period in 2013 came back positive for HCT. At least two were partial sample cases, he said, suggesting a common environmental cause.
Campbell-Brown has won 7 Olympic medals in all, including gold in the 200 meters in 2004 and 2008 and the 4×100 relay in 2004. She also won the 100-meter world title in 2007 and 200 gold at the 2011 worlds.
She was one of 8 Jamaican athletes who failed drug tests last year.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press
