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touchline
The journal of spor t & r isk with an international perspective
Issue 6
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Earlier this year three pieces of news
confirmed an increasingly hard line against
drugs in sport is being taken by sports
authorities.
First, UK anti-doping officials achieved
the first positive test for human growth
hormone (HGH) when Wakefield rugby
league player Terry Newton failed a test.
Newton admitted the finding and he was
handed a two-year ban. HGH, which has
applications for endurance and power
athletes, can only be detected by a blood
test and evidence of its use fades within
days.
Andy Parkinson, CEO of UKAD, commented
that the finding sent a strong message to
athletes in all sports ahead of the London
Olympics that if they take HGH they now
run the risk of being caught.
The second item was news that the
Australian Football League has signed
a groundbreaking agreement with the
Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority
whereby AFL players will become the first
sportspeople in Australia to be tested for
HGH and a new type of the endurance-
enhancing hormone erythropoietin (EPO).
AFL football operations manager Adrian
Anderson also said the league would
conduct extensive blood testing and
profiling and freeze samples obtained from
players for a period of up to eight years. He
said the new measures were being taken
to ensure the integrity of the sport was not
threatened.
And third, the International Rugby Board
announced that the number of drugs tests
reached record levels in 2009. 1293 tests
was undertaken throughout the year and
despite the record number of tests, IRB
Anti-Doping rule violations fell from 13 in
2008 to 4 in 2009. That amounts to 0.3%
of the total testing regime.
This is excellent news as there is no place
in sport for drug cheats. However, all sports
disciplines must remain vigilant.
There is a tendancy to think that drugs are
more prevalent in the strength or endurance
type of sports such as weightlifting, track
and field and cycling. However, a few years
ago official figures from an internal IOC
Steve Boucher
touchline@sportscover.com
testing welcome
report show the sport with the highest
percentage of anti-doping violations was,
surprisingly, golf. Baseball was second
followed by karate, archery, rollersports,
track and field, table tennis.
So it is important that all sports continue
to impose strict anti-doping rules to stamp
out this practice in their sport.
Nevertheless, despite the best efforts of the
sports authorities, there are still examples
of sportsmen and women involved in
doping. In March this year, American
Wayne Odesnik, world No 98 tennis player,
pleaded guilty in an Australian court to
importing HGH. Eight vials of HGH were
found in his luggage before he planned
to play in Brisbane and at the Australian
Open.
Also, UK Athletics had its third drug case
in a month after 110 metre hurdles athlete
Callum Priestley, one of Britain’s most
promising prospects for the Olympics, tested
positive for the banned drug clenbuterol.
This follows two young British shot putters,
Kieren Kelly and Jamie Stevenson, who
have been charged with a doping offence
after refusing to take a drug test.
However, in an announcement that is
bound to be welcomed by all fair minded
sports lovers, the British 4x400 relay team
of Roger Black, Jamie Baulch, Iwan Thomas
and Mark Richardson have finally been
awarded World Championship gold medals
thirteen years after they were beaten by
a drug-tainted US team. The International
Association of Athletics Federations,
stripped the US team of Pettigrew, Jones,
Washington and Young of their 1997 World
title in November 2008 after Pettigrew
admitted using drugs.
Good news for the British relay team and
good news for sport!
May 2010
Harder line in drug
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