Drug Free Sport New Zealand (DFSNZ) has reported an anti-doping rule violation against the Respondent after her sample tested positive for the prohibited substance methylhexaneamine (dimethylpentylamine). After notification a provisional suspension was ordered and Respondent was heard for the Tribunal.
Respondent admitted the violation and gave evidence that the violation was accidental and due to her, on the morning of the competition, taking a capsule of a supplement called “Ripped Freak” which unknown to her contained dimethylpentylamine. The supplement’s package did not list dimethylpentylamine as an ingredient. It listed geranium seed extract as an ingredient but she did not know that dimethylpentylamine could be a product of geranium seed. She made inquiries to the distributor whether it contained any prohibited substances. The distributor told her that the manufacturer had advised that it did not contain prohibited substances.
The Tribunal accepted that Respondent did not know the supplement contained a prohibited substance and did not take it for performance enhancing reasons, but rather to “lift her mental state”, and noted she was the only competitor in her class.
After the Tribunal hearing, but before the Tribunal made its decision, the Tribunal was advised that the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) was reclassifying dimethylpentylamine as a “specified substance” in the 2011 Prohibited List.
The Tribunal considers comparable anti-doping decisions of its own and overseas bodies concerning athletes inadvertently taking prohibited specified substances (including cases where doctors had mistakenly prescribed athletes prohibited substances, which the present case was seen as more serious than).
Therefore he Sports Tribunal of New Zealand decides to impose a 6 month period of ineligibility on Respondent, starting on the date of the provisional suspension, i.e. on 27 July 2010.
