The Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) has acknowledged that some procedures carried out in the sample collection process for Olympian Veronica Campbell-Brown at the Jamaica Invitational Meet last year were inconsistent with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) International Standards.
JADCO issued a statement on Wednesday admitting the error a day after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) released the reason why it cleared the Jamaican sprinter of doping.
The sport’s highest appeals body said Campbell-Brown was cleared because of deplorable mistakes by Jamaican athletics and anti-doping officials in the collection of her first partial sample.
CAS said the errors could have led to the sample being contaminated by water or sweat containing a banned substance.
Read CAS blasts Jamaica over sloppy anti-doping procedures
Below is the statement issued by JADCO
” The Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) has received the final report of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) concerning Veronica Campbell-Brown’s adverse analytical finding.
JADCO acknowledges that some procedures carried out in the sample collection process on May 4, 2013, at the Jamaica Invitational Meet at the National Stadium, in Kingston, Jamaica were inconsistent with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) International Standards. Specifically, no partial sample kits were used in the collection process.
We therefore, take this opportunity to state that there is no documentation in existence at JADCO, indicating that WADA gave the Commission permission to deviate from the standard, which is applicable to all signatories of the WADA Code.
Currently, the restructured JADCO, working in concert with its recently appointed Chairman and Board of Commissioners, continues to refine and upgrade its operational procedures to remove any weaknesses in the system. As a result, we are continuing to recruit qualified employees to fill the necessary staff vacancies and assist in improving JADCO’s testing capabilities and public education programme.
In order to further strengthen the capacity of its testing programme, JADCO has taken the necessary steps to fully adhere to all the WADA International Standards, as we are now in possession of the partial sample kits.
We have also trained two additional Doping Control Officers (DCOs) and we are currently in the process of recruiting additional DCOs and Chaperones and recertifying our current doping control personnel.
In its on-going effort to further build capacity, JADCO is partnering with the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
JADCO and CCES will be signing a Joint Initiative Agreement shortly, for a period of 15 months through which CCES will provide guidance, training and technical assistance to JADCO. This will enable JADCO to benefit from the experience of a National Anti-Doping Organisation (NADO) with over twenty years of anti-doping knowledge and expertise.
JADCO, in partnership with the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) recently successfully conducted five regional Junior Athletes Anti-Doping Education Workshops for secondary school athletes and their support personnel. JADCO’s public education programme is on-going and will continue to focus on providing the requisite anti-doping information to all athletes, especially those in the JADCO‘s National Registered Testing Pool.
Furthermore, the Government of Jamaica, in continuing to strengthen its commitment to preserving integrity in sport has recently approved a 63% increase in budgetary support to JADCO for the 2014/2015 financial year.”
Campbell-Brown tested positive for the diuretic HCT after competing in a national meet in Kingston on May 4, 2013.
The athlete was initially suspended provisionally by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
In September, a Jamaican disciplinary panel ruled that Campbell-Brown had not committed a doping violation and gave her only a reprimand.
The IAAF contested the finding and ordered the Jamaican federation to impose a two-year suspension in February.
Campbell-Brown appealed to CAS and a hearing was held in London on February 21.
The CAS found that Campbell-Brown established a “credible” possibility that her positive test resulted from Jamaica’s failure to comply with the international standards for partial sample testing.
