Posts Tagged ‘doping’

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.

The Olympic and world 400m champion, LaShawn Merritt, who was banned for 21 months after testing positive for an anabolic steroid has made a comeback after drug ban is cut.

Merritt finished second behind Jermaine Gonzales of Jamaica in Stockholm and said his aim was on competing at the world championships after being selected by the US governing body.

From Guardian.co.uk:

Stockholm’s meet organiser, Rajne Soderberg, defended his invitation to the American, saying Merritt’s circumstances did not conflict with the EuroMeetings ban on drug offenders. “He is not banned for two years,” Soderberg said. “He’s not put the sport in real disrepute. He’s not got caught with doping products in his car, like some athletes have.”

Usain Bolt comfortably won the 200m, crossing the line in 20.03sec, on the same track where he suffered a rare defeat against Tyson Gay in the 100m last season. The 24-year-old’s time was short of his world-leading mark of 19.86sec in Oslo this season but the Jamaican was running into a headwind.

The 33-year-old Chambers qualified for Saturday’s 100m semi-finals at the UK Trials and is vying for a place at next month’s world championships. But because of his two-year drug suspension for taking the anabolic steroid THG, dating to 2003, he remains ineligible to run in Diamond League events.

“I’m just leaving it all up to God to figure it out,” the 25-year-old told the BBC. “My family are behind me. I’m clean and I’m really just getting ready for the worlds. Running 44.74sec [a time that ranks him fifth fastest in the world this year] in my first race, I can’t complain.”

Sports policy of Punjab, the Indian state, has zero tolerance to doping as per Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.

The Deputy CM said such unethical means by sportsmen for earning medals could be never ethical and will not be encouraged by the government.

From Timesofindia.indiatimes.com:

He also handed over appointment letters to five eminent sportspersons Manjit Kaur, Avneet Kaur Sidhu, Ronjan Sodhi, Palwinder Singh Cheema and Amandeep Kaur who have won gold l medals in the Asian and Commonwealth Games for the posts of Deputy Superintendents of Police.

Congratulating these sportspersons on the occasion, of Sukhbir wished them a bright and prosperous future in their l respective fields of sports besides a promising professional career ahead in state police department.

“Since the noted sportspersons are the role models for our youth and therefore, the state government will not tolerate at all to get our innocent youth swayed by such incidents of doping,” Sukhbir said.

Greece’s Fani Halkia believes she was made the victim of sabotage “by third parties” over her failed doping test.

This claim was made by the 29-year-old in a written testimony she delivered to Athens prosecutor Costas Simitzoglou.

From Espnstar.com:

Halkia, who won the gold medal in the 400 metres hurdles in Athens in 2004, has consistently denied since testing positive for methyltrienolone on August 16 that she knowingly took steroids.

“In the three months before the Olympics, I undertook 18 doping tests. No other athlete has ever been subjected to doping controls of such frequency,” said Halkia in her statement.

“I always cooperate with the submission of doping controls because I know that I have never made use of prohibited substances.

“I never knowingly took a banned substance, and I never knowingly used methyltrienolone at the Olympics.

“The action attributed to me is a malicious act by third parties that I was unaware of.”

The prosecutor is investigating to find out if she broke Greek law by taking banned substances.

Facourou Sissoko from Mali and Ukrainian Liudmyla Osmanova have been excluded from the Paralympic Games after doping violations.

The two power lifters from Mali and Ukraine tested positive in pre-Games out-of-competition tests for the anabolic agents, boldenone metabolite and 19-Norandrosterone, respectively.

From Espnstar.com:

Pakistan powerlifter Naveed Ahmed Butt tested positive for methandienone metabolites on Tuesday, while German wheelchair basketball player Ahmet Coskun was banned for using a substance he insisted was he took to combat hair loss.

Coskun tested positive for finasteride, which can be used as a masking agent.

The athletes can appeal the decision up to seven days after receiving the notification.

To date, a total of 461 tests have been carried out at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.

Both athletes have been banned for two years.

Yuri Ogorobonik, the sacked Ukrainian coach who trained India’s quarter-milers caught in doping, has claimed innocence and said that he was being set-up.

Ogorobonik said he is a professional and never suggested athletes to take steroids.

From inewsone.com:

‘Every player has their food supplement plan. I have prohibited this steroid 20 years ago. It is a bad anabolic. It’s dirty trick played by someone. I am not stupid to advise these substances to athletes. I am a professional. I called the doctors in Ukraine to find out and there is nothing in the supplements. I am not aware of who is responsible for the set-up,’ the coach added.

Sports Minister Ajay Maken announced the sacking of the coach Tuesday.

Six of the eight Indian athletes who tested positive for banned substance methandienone are 400m runners. Three of them were part of the women’s 4×400m relay team that won gold in the CWG and Asian Games last year.

‘The first thing I want to say is that I have given the athletes only food supplements. I am working here for 12 years. I have never given anabolic steroids. I have been set-up. I can’t believe this all has happened,’ Ogorobonik told a television channel.