Drug Free Sport New Zealand (DFSNZ) has reported an anti-doping rule violation against the Respondent after his sample tested positive for the prohibited substance Probenecid. After notification Respondent accepted a provisional suspension and was heard for the Tribunal.
Respondent admitted the violation and gave evidence that it was inadvertent. A doctor, at an accident and emergency clinic, prescribed and administered him Probenecid tablets as part of treatment for cellulitis in his knee. Neither the doctor nor he realised Probenecid was a prohibited substance in sport. Respondent had the balance of the prescribed Probenecid administered when he later visited his own doctor. The Tribunal concluded the prescribed Probenecid caused the positive test.
The Tribunal accepted evidence from Respondent, and the emergency clinic doctor, that Respondent had informed the doctor that he was a competitive boxer subject to drug testing and had asked if the suggested treatment would cause any problems if he was later drug tested. He accepted the doctor’s assurance it would not. However, the doctor did not check whether Probenecid was a prohibited substance in sport but had wrongly assumed it would not be.
The Tribunal has considerable sympathy for Respondent and accepted there was no significant fault on his part but regrets it could not accept his defence that he had no fault at all.
Therefore he Sports Tribunal of New Zealand decides to impose a reprimand on the Respondent
