Related case:
UKAD 2018 Joanna Blair vs UKAD - Appeal
July 30, 2018
In July 2017 the United Kingdom Anti-Doping (UKAD) has reported an anti-doping rule violation against the Athlete Joanna Blair after her sample tested positive for the prohibited substance Metandienone. After notification a provisional suspension was ordered. The Athlete filed a statement in her defence and she was heard for the National Anti-Doping Panel.
Analysis of the Athlete’s supplements in the London Lab revealed that the Metandienone had been detected in the creatine powder ‘PhD creatine’.
The Athlete accepted the test result of her sample, admitted the violation, argued that the violation was not intentional and that she bears No Significant Fault or Negligence. She asserted that the creatine supplement, unknown to her, was contaminated with Methandienon.
UKAD reported that the PhD creatine from the same batch had been obtained but analysis of this batch product in the London Lab did not reveal the presence of the substance Metandienone. Accordingly UKAD deemed that the Athlete failed to establish how the substance entered her system, nor that the violation was not intentional.
The Panel considered in this case four possible explanations for how the prohibited substance came into this supplement:
- contamination during manufacture;
- introduction after the adverse analytical finding;
- introduction before the adverse analytical finding by a third party; and
- introduction before the adverse analytical finding by the Athlete.
After assessment these explanations were rejected by the Panel. Accordingly the Panel concludes that the Athlete failed to establish how the substance entered her system, nor that the violation was not intentional.
Therefore the National Anti-Doping Panel decides on 23 February 2018 to impose a 4 year period of ineligibility on the Athlete starting on the date of the provisional suspension, i.e. on 20 July 2017.
