Row in Jamaica over Tests, from Inside the Games, Note by Larry Eder

It is going to get ugly in Jamaica. In a recent story on the website, www.Insidethegames.com, JADCO, the drug testing agency in Jamaica, is preparing an appeal against the finding of the disciplinary board. The independent disciplinary board, established by the Jamaican Sports Ministry, did not accept the positive tests of five Jamaican athletes (Yohan Blake, Marvin Anderson, Allodin Fothergill, Lansford Spence and Sheri-Ann Brooks, who was exonerated due to irregular handling of her B sample) for methylxanthine, due to the fact that the specific drug that appeared in their testing was not on the WADA list. However, while methylxanthine in not on the WADA List of Banned Substances, Tuaminoheptanewere, a drug with the same make-up as Methylxanthine, is noted as a stimulant, and banned, on the WADA list. This is what the battle will be about.
In the story (http://www.insidethegames.com/show-news.php?id=6394), JADCO makes a pretty good argument that the drug that appeared in the test is in the same family as a drug on the banned list. Here was JADCO’s final statement:
” All four athletes were found with 4-Mehtly-2 Hexanamine in their urine samples which was reported as an Adverse Analytical Finding by the WADA accredited laboratory in Montreal, Canada, and that this substance is considered by WADA as being of similar chemical structure to Tuaminoheptane, which is listed as an example of a stimulant in the WADA 2009 prohibited list international standard.”
The IAAF is looking into the situation and will meet on it in Berlin, before the competition. They can send the case to CAS, and while arbitration is going on,
prevent the athletes from competing on the world stage. Details to come.
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