by Alfonz Juck
This piece, from April 10, 2014, is about Asafa Powell getting an 18-month ban. The story was from JADCO.
POWELL UNTIL END OF 2014
KINGSTON (JAM): Jamaican sprint star and former world 100 m record holder Asafa Powell has been banned for 18 months for his positive drug test. Informs trackalerts. The ban should end on December 28, 2014. That means he would miss the full 2014 year. At the National Senior Championship on June 21, 2013, after the 100m finals, Powell returned positive analytical findings for a stimulant, oxilofrine. He blamed his former Canadian physical trainer Chris Xuereb for positive which was found in supplements given to him. Lennox Gayle of the JADCO disciplinary panel said having reviewed and listened, and bisected all evidence in this matter and reading the submissions of both councils, the panel arrived at a unanimous decision, and it is a decision is that Mr. Powell was found to be negligent and that he was at fault, especially since that he is an elite athlete, so the period of ineligibility will be 18 months, starting from the date of the position test.” JADCO’s lawyer Lackston Robinson, who during his closing arguments in front chairman Lennox Gayle, Peter Prendergast and Dr Japheth Ford on February 25, said, Powell is “guilty of gross negligence” and should serve no less than two years. Robinson, who said at the time he was not convinced that Epiphany D1 contained the substance oxilofrine found in Simpson’s sample, also discredited Caritox, a lab at UWI Report, given by Prof Wayne McLaughlin and questioned the „honesty” of the evidence given by agent Paul Doyle. Powell, on his Instagram page late Wednesday night, “May your worst tomorrow be better than your best yesterday.”
