Posts Tagged ‘doping’

The four-day hearing of Alberto Contador at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over his positive for clenbuterol in the 2010 Tour finished, with a verdict in the case expected some time early in the New Year.

Contador, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) all have maintained their initial positions during the hearing in Lausanne, Switzerland.

From Cyclingweekly.co.uk:

The UCI and WADA believe Contador deserves a ban of up to two years for doping, and Contador claims the positive was due to his eating a contaminated steak and that he should go clear.

Contador – unusually for athletes – has been present throughout the hearing, which ended with a 15-minute personal appeal by the Spaniard in defence of his case. However, Contador – who was cross-examined on Wednesday – did not make any comments to the press when he left the CAS building on Thursday afternoon, and neither did WADA and the UCI’s lawyers.

Contador v. the UCI/WADA will also be remembered as the second longest in CAS history after the case of deposed 2006 Tour winner Floyd Landis testing positive for testosterone.

Reform and collaboration with national federations in light of Alberto Contador case have been called upon by WADA director general David Howman.

On the eve of the PCC (Partnership for Clean Competition) conference in New York, Howman pinpointed the dangers brought in by organized crime, corruption, doping within sport, and a lack of drive from within governing bodies.

From Cyclingnews.com:

And with the Alberto Contador case set for a conclusion in the coming weeks, Howman has outlined why he and the UCI pursued an appeal, but admitted that the judicial system needed reform in order to provide quicker resolutions.

Howman will be the key note speaker in New York on Thursday in front of an audience including Travis Tygart (USADA) and Jeff Novitzky (FDA), and talked passionately about WADA’s role in fighting for the integrity of the sport as it faces up to more than just the threats of athletes doping, as organised crime rings, and corruption have become hot topics.

“We, WADA, were set up because every sport and every government had a different rule. I think things have improved considerably because now there is one set of rules covering everything, and I think that the gaps to the cheaters has narrowed quite considerably,” Howman told Cyclingnews.

The ongoing Kabaddi World Cup has earned the dubious distinction of being the most dope-tainted sporting event, according to the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL), New Delhi.

At the NDTL, about 25 percent of the total samples have turned out positive.

From Hindustantimes.com:

Till date, 41 dope cases have been detected during the event. Teams from the US and Australia have even been banned.

“Such a high percentage of dope-positive players has not been found in any other sporting event,” said Dr Alka Beotra, scientific director, NDTL. She was at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, to attend the 33rd Indian Association of Sports Medicine Congress.

Doping was most common in contact sports, including kabaddi. “However, the main reason for the high doping percentage is that kabaddi is an unregulated sport and there is low level of awareness among players and coaches,” Dr Beotra said.

The shattered Olympic dreams of Matildas could be revived as Australia appeals to have North Korea banned from next year’s London Games over a doping row.

The national women’s soccer team narrowly missed a 2012 Olympic berth after it finished third at the Asian qualifying tournament in September behind Japan and North Korea, who claimed the two Games spots.

From News.smh.com.au:

North Korea were banned by FIFA from competing in the 2015 Women’s World Cup following a doping scandal at the 2011 World Cup in Germany in June-July.

Five players tested positive to steroids and received bans of up to 18 months, while the team’s doctor was banned for six years.

It’s understood FIFA’s disciplinary committee wanted to punish North Korea only in the same competition, and therefore did not extend the whole team ban to the Olympics.

Matildas players are incensed at the decision, especially as no drug tests were taken at the Olympic qualifying tournament in China, in which they suffered a key opening 1-0 loss to North Korea.

“We think it’s strange that a team is banned for 2015 and not 2012 so we have raised the issue with WADA, the IOC and FIFA but so far to no avail,” Football Federation Australia national teams chief John Boultbee told AAP.

Mexican fighter Juan Manuel Marquez defended himself on Wednesday as doping clouds arose after his strength coach was revealed to be among those involved in a major doping scandal that stung US athletics.

“Whatever doping they want to do – blood, Olympian – whatever they want to do, I’ll do it, as long as he does it too,” Marquez said through a translator.

From Sport24.co.za:

Victor Conte, whose BALCO products were at the centre of a major doping scandal, revealed in a Twitter posting on Monday that Marquez’s strength and conditioning coach was Angel Heredia, who testified in a doping investigation.

Heredia admitted providing banned performance-enhancing substances to Trevor Graham, former coach of disgraced former stars Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery among others.

Alex Ariza, Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning coach, commented about Marquez looking bigger and stronger as well. Together with Heredia’s past links to doping, Marquez found himself on the defensive about his fit physique.

“It’s a shame all the work I’ve done has been trashed by these guys, Conte and Ariza,” Marquez said.

A current study on the body’s elimination of small doses of clenbuterol could offer new perspectives on identifying non-intentional doping after oral ingestion of contaminated food.

According to scientists from the FIFA Medical Assessment and Research Centre (F-MARC), the Centre for Leisure, Sport and Tourism Research and Development (CLTS, Nicosia, Cyprus), and the Swiss Laboratory for Doping Analyses (Lausanne, Switzerland), the completion of the first stage of a study addressing the still pending matter of food contamination with clenbuterol.

From Fifa.com:

Several countries have been identified where such contamination is frequently found, posing numerous practical, procedural and legal problems for anti-doping organisations and athletes alike. WADA had been informed beforehand about the study and received the approved research protocol.

The study is designed in such way that it simulates the ingestion of food contaminated with clenbuterol, where rather small amounts of the substance enter the body and are then distributed, degraded and eliminated via different routes. All these processes, including the speed in which they take place (known as the pharmacokinetics of a substance) need to be properly understood in order to evaluate the effect of different doses of clenbuterol on the elimination process from an athlete’s body.

The study, sponsored by FIFA, is being conducted by the CLTS at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus and approved by both the Cyprus National Bioethics Committee and the Cyprus Drug Council.

Under a new plan between the Irish Sports Council and the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), schoolboy rugby players would soon be undergoing tests for performance enhancing drugs.

The young players would face tests for banned substances and the move came after years of talks and concerns about growing drug use.

From Herald.ie:

The move comes after years of talks – stemming from growing concern about drug use.

The two bodies will attempt to stamp out steroid consumption among players as well as substances such as creatine.

The decision is being viewed as bringing Irish rugby in line with international norms, with countries such as South Africa introducing similar measures two years ago.

Doping tests at South Africa’s top school tournament this year found that four players tested positive for anabolic steroids.

The tests would be carried out at rugby grounds before fixtures, rather than in individual schools.

The ex-president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Dick Pound, said George Laraque’s allegations about performance enhancing drugs in the NHL reinforce what he himself said six years ago.

In November 2005, Pound said as many as a third of NHL players were using some kind of performance-enhancing drug.

From Sports.yahoo.com:

Pound has been an International Olympic Committee member for 33 years. He’ll be inducted into the Canada’s Sports Hall Of Fame in Calgary as a builder Tuesday alongside hockey star Ray Bourque, CFL kicker Lui Passaglia, soccer player Andrea Neil, triathlete Peter Reid and Paralympian Lauren Woolstencroft.

While president of WADA from its inception in 1999 to 2007, Pound publicly singled out sports organizations he thought turned a blind eye to doping by their athletes.

Laraque, who retired in 2010 after playing almost 700 career games, writes in “The Story of the NHL’s Unlikeliest Tough Guy” that the NHL only began policing drugs in his final years in the league.

“Anybody who pays attention to these things already knew that,” Pound said Monday from his Montreal law office. “The only organization in denial was the NHL.”

The South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport has released its latest statistics for the period between April 2010 and March 2011.

According to the report, a staggering increase of 178 percent in overall doping among athletes of the country was noticed, with anabolic steroids identified as the drug of choice.

From Eyewitnessnews.co.za:

“In 51 of those cases the laboratory returned positive results with at least one or more of the banned substances found in biological specimens,” Manjra said.

He added that the increase and the doping statistics could largely be attributed to wide spread availability of sports supplements that contain banned substances.

“We’re clearly concerned about the proliferation for every substance in South Africa and largely among our youth,” he said.

Shoaib Manjra of the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport added that banned substances included anabolic steroids, pro-hormones, and stimulants.

The London Olympics dreams of dope tainted athlete Ashwini Akkunji are virtually over as her ‘B’ sample also tested positive for anabolic steroids.

Akkunji now faces the prospect of a two-year ban for her offence.

From Timesofindia.indiatimes.com:

Ashwini and Priyanka had their ‘B’ samples tested on Thursday at the National Dope Testing Laboratory and the results, which came on Monday, confirmed the presence of methandienone in them.

“We have received papers from the NADA that both Ashwini and Priyanka’s ‘B’ samples have tested positive for the same anabolic steroids found in their ‘A’ sample,” Athletics Federation of India Director M L Dogra said.

Ashwini and Priyanka, who were caught for doping just hours before they were to leave the country for the July 7-10 Asian Athletics Championships in Japan, will now be heard by a NADA Disciplinary Panel.

Ashwini and Priyanka have been provisionally suspended by the AFI pending the decision by the NADA panel.