Tweet
-
-
Jamaican sprinting star Veronica Campbell-Brown has described her ordeal as a painful one and admitted to missing the track, after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) overturned a two-year ban by the IAAF Doping Review Board yesterday, clearing her to return to competition.
Campbell-Brown had been suspended since testing positive for a banned substance at last May's Jamaica International Invitational, with a Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) Disciplinary Panel later recommending a public reprimand for the athlete following a three-day in camera hearing.
However, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Doping Review Board recently overturned the JAAA Disciplinary Panel's ruling, slapping a two-year ban on the 31-year-old and forcing her to take her appeal to the Lausanne-based CAS, through an expedited process, facilitated by the IAAF.
It's the CAS that ruled yesterday morning that the 16-time Olympic and World Championships medallist, who was represented by former Jamaican Prime Minister Percival James Patterson and United States-based attorney Howard Jacobs, was free to resume her career on the track.
"The final court available to us as athletes has spoken and, humbly, I say they have confirmed my innocence. I harbour too much self-respect and a similar respect for the purity of competition to resort to illegalmeans to success," Campbell-Brown said through a media release.
"The past several months of my life have brought me much pain and suffering, however, my faith, family, friends and fans have stood by me as a source of encouragement and a reminder that God's word is true in that he will never leave us nor forsake us," Campbell-Brown added before indicating she was hoping to compete at next month's IAAF World Indoor Championships where she would defend her 60m title.
"I've been training. I was born to run track and field. I love track and field. I have been doing it from I was so young and it has become a part of me," she noted during a radio interview. "I have been training hard and I thank God that he has kept me healthy through this terrible period in my life."
"I must say that I miss the track. I have been doing pro tracks since 2004 and I've never been away from the track for so long, except in 2006 when I had a serious injury, and so I'm not used to sitting at home and not competing. Honestly, I am anxious to get back on the track," Campbell-Brown continued.
"My hope is to be on the World Championships team, to get back out there and perform with the talent that He has given me and glorifying God through what He has done for me, so that is my immediate plan," said Campbell-Brown.
The JAAA was expected to name its team to the IAAF World Indoor Championships last night. The championships will take place in Sopot, Poland, March 7-9.
Campbell-Brown also paid special thanks to her agent Claude Bryan, husband Omar, and supporters, as well as the IAAF for expediting her case to the CAS. -
4 Comments
Veronica Campbell-Brown, the Jamaican two-time Olympic 200-metres champion, has been cleared to compete again with immediate effect after winning an appeal against a secretly imposed two-year doping ban.
The 31-year-old, who tested positive for a banned diuretic at the Jamaica Invitational meet last year, had originally escaped with just public warning in October after a disciplinary panel in Jamaica ruled that her violation was not serious enough to warrant a ban.
But it has now been revealed that the International Association of Athletics Federation took issue with the leniency of the punishment and stepped in two weeks ago to order a two-year ban for the sprinter. Unusually, the increased punishment was never made public.
However, Campbell-Brown appealed against the two-year suspension at the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled on Monday that she had not been guilty of any violation and was now free to resume her track career.
The appeal hearing was fast-tracked with the agreement of the IAAF so that a decision would be reached before the World Indoor Championships in Sopot, Poland, which begin on Mar 7.
The ruling paves the way for Campbell-Brown to make her international return for Jamaica in the 60 metres, where she will have to the chance to take her third successive world title after victories in Doha in 2010 and Istanbul in 2012.
In a statement released by her management company, the sprinter said: "The final court available to us as athletes have spoken and humbly I say they have confirmed my innocence."
Despite being exonerated, Campbell-Brown, who has won a total of 18 Olympic and world medals in her career, has effectively served an eight-month suspension because she has not raced since her positive drug test was announced last June. She was unable to defend her 200m title at last summer’s World Championships in Moscow.
She said: “I lost out on the opportunity to compete for most of 2013 and the chance to defend my world 200m title. However, I press on. Dr Martin Luther King Jr spoke of the redemptive quality of unearned suffering and I must say I am redeemed.”
Howard Jacobs, Campbell-Brown’s United States-based lawyer, toldTelegraph Sport that the IAAF ordered the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association to impose a two-year ban Campbell-Brown on Feb 10 after her case was examined by its Doping Review Board. That decision was never made public.
Jacobs said: “We immediately appealed, and the case was expedited by CAS so that a decision could be reached in advance of the IAAF World Indoor Championships. CAS has upheld the appeal and determined that there was no violation of the anti-doping rules.”
The IAAF refused to comment on details of the case on Monday but said in a statement: “The IAAF was made aware earlier today of the CAS judgment but has not received the full reasoned decision and therefore will not make any comments about the decision at this stage. We can, however, confirm that the athlete Veronica Campbell-Brown is now free to compete.”
The athlete tested positive for a diuretic which was on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned list because it could be used as a masking agent to conceal the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
It has been reported that the substance was contained in cream Campbell-Brown was using to treat a leg injury and that she declared the medication after winning her 100m race at the Invitational meeting in Kingston.
In its original ruling in October, her Jamaican disciplinary panel said there was no evidence she had used the substance for performance enhancement and “recommended that a reprimand without any period of ineligibility would be appropriate”.
Comment
-
this is where she say it come from
The banned drug came from a cream that Campbell-Brown was using to treat a leg injury and which she had declared on her doping control form, according to Reuters, citing unnamed sources close to Jamaican track and field.Comment
-
da ting iss sum drinks da yaawd peeps drinks ar natural dueretrikksComment
Comment