In October 2017 the United Kingdom Anti-Doping (UKAD) has reported an anti-doping rule violation against the boxer Eric Molina after his sample tested positive for the prohibited substance Dexamethasone. After notification a provisional suspension was ordered. The Athlete submitted a statement in his defence and he failed to be heard for the National Anti-Doping Panel (NADP).
The Athlete admitted the violation and accepted the test results. He explained that the positive test was caused through the administration to him of the product Tribedoce DX by way of intramuscular injection by one of his team on the day of the event.
UKAD accepted in this case that the violation was not intentional and contended that he also was very significantly at fault and as an experienced athlete clearly failed to exercise utmost caution with his supplements.
The Panel finds that the Athlete established how the prohibited substance entered his system through an intramuscular injection as prohibited route and that the starting sanction is a 2 year period of ineligibility.
Here the Panel determines that the Boxer simply ignored all risks, failed to act with the utmost caution and shows “a significant degree of or considerable fault”. The Panel holds that an experienced athlete wanting to take vitamin B12 could take it in a number of ways. He chose to take it through an intermuscular injection, from a new source bought in Mexico and made absolutely no checks whatsoever as to what was in that supplement. There are no grounds for a further reduction of the period of ineligibility
Therefore the NADP decides on 27 April 2018 to impose the standard sanction of a 2 year period of inelibility on the Athlete starting on the date of the provisional suspension, i.e. on 28 October 2017.
