Three-time Olympic champ Veronica Campbell-Brown is hoping to avoid a maximum suspension for doping because the drug she tested positive for was reportedly contained in a cream she declared on her doping control form, according to Reuters.
The Jamaican sprinter tested positive for the diuretic furosemide, which was found in urine samples taken at the Kingston Invitational on May 4. The substance is banned for its use as a masking agent for performance enhancing drugs.
She was facing a two-year ban from the IAAF after her B-sample confirmed the results last week, but if the drug doesn’t appear listed on the label of the cream, then Campbell-Brown may have some wiggle room with WADA.
“As soon as we get notification of the B-sample we will be moving to empanel a disciplinary team to carry out a speedy hearing,” Jamaican Athletics president Warren Blake said Tuesday.
Campbell-Brown is one of the country’s most decorated Olympians, having won seven medals, including back-to-back 200m gold in Athens and Beijing. If her appeal isn’t upheld then she’s likely to miss national trials this weekend and be unable to defend her 200m world title in Moscow this August.
Adding to the intrigue, just yesterday Usain Bolt’s coach Glen Mills called for the government to create an accredited anti-doping lab to “ensure the purity of substances” the Jamaicans are using in training, which he thinks will help top athletes navigate the current minefield of things like contaminated creams.
UPDATE: Campbell-Brown’s manager Claude Bryan has released a statement from his client apologizing to those hurt by the news while not accepting guilt for taking the banned substance:
“Veronica is not a cheat, she has via hard work and dedication accomplished a record on the track which is absolutely remarkable. Her faith which rest not in device or creed will see her through this dark period. Due to her determination to vigorously pursue the clearing of her name, she will desist from being vocal suffice it to say, while not accepting guilt of willfully taking a banned substance, she wholeheartedly apologizes to her family, Jamaica, her sponsors, the governing body, the world athletics family, her supporters as well as those she worked with in various non-athletic causes for any embarrassment and or hurt this devastating news has caused. She remains an ardent believer in the purity of competition, the beauty of the sport and resolute in the fact that unearned suffering has redemptive qualities.”
