India’s hammer thrower Kanika Kumari’s random test came up positive for an anabolic steroid. This resulted to her being pulled out of the competition at the ongoing 3rd Commonwealth Youth Games by the Athletics Federation of India.

According to sources, Kumari had failed the dope test before the start of games in Pune, the host city of CYG. The test was conducted by the National Dope Testing Laboratory in New Delhi and it was the lab which confirmed the results to the AFI officials.

Kanika was considered to be one of the top contenders in the event.

“Her participation could have been very embarrassing moment for the country (if her samples were taken and tested at the WADA accredited laboratory),” said one AFI official who refused to be named.

Many sports observers in India have been suspicious of Kanika’s fast improvement in her sport, fanning rumors that she might be using anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. This was only the first time, however, that the young athlete had failed a doping test.

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Tags: anabolic steroid, Commonwealth Youth Games. Athletics Federation of India, hammer thrower Kanika Kumari, steroids

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It is now confirmed that Kenyan sprinter Elizabeth Muthuka has failed a steroid test at the July 26 to 28 national championships.

Athletics Kenya (AK) initially has not offered any explanation when Muthuka’s name was not among those who were sent to Beijing. She was the only female sprinter to qualify for the 2008 Olympics and was expected to run at the 400-meter event.

AK’s secretary general David Okeyo explained the reason for the delay in releasing details regarding the athlete’s failed test.

“Yes, Muthuka tested positive at the national championships. We had to treat the matter in confidence because procedural things had to be done to avoid legal issues,” AK secretary general, David Okeyo, said yesterday.

“At the national championships, six athletes were tested for drugs and only her results returned positive. We have forwarded her name to the IAAF. She now has to follow the full procedure if she wants to compete again,” Okeyo added.

“We could not tell you this since we had to wait until we got her B sample test results, which later proved positive. She appeared before AK’s medical board to explain her case and she was found to have no excuse to engage in drug abuse,” Okeyo further explained.

Muthuka’s A and B blood samples tested positive for anabolic steroid nandrolone and was penalized with a two-year ban by AK.

According to The Standard, the sprinter’s women’s 400m national record of 50.82 ran at the Olympic trials will be erased. She was also asked to return the monetary reward, which amounted to Sh10,000, for breaking Ruth Waithera’s record set of 53.3 in 1984. Mathuka was also compelled to give back all other earnings from the track.

Further, her women’s 400m national record of 50.82 ran at the Olympic trials is now considered deleted.

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Tags: 400-m event, anabolic steroid, anabolic steroids, Athletics Kenya, Beijing Olympics, Elizabeth Muthuka, failed steroid test, Kenyan sprinter, nandrolone, steroids

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To Victor Conte, the Caribbean is not only great for doing some R and R, but for doping as well.

In his letter to the New York Daily News, the former big boss of BALCO is giving out unsolicited advice for anti-doping organizations to step up their testing policies. And we’re sure Conte meant well and definitely knows what he’s talking about. He is a reformed man since he has spent some time in prison and then some more time on house arrest, we think any man would have the opportunity to turn over a new leaf under those circumstances. And for masterminding the biggest steroid scandal in history, we are sure he knows the ins and outs of steroid use.

Apparently, Mr. Conte is so concerned with the problem of doping in sports that he met with the former WADA boss Dick Pound in December 2007. Then, Conte has stressed the importance of implementing more out-of-competition testing to curb the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

On said meeting, Conte said he advised Pound to deploy “disguised testers” to Jamaica, providing WADA with details about a certain drug supplier there. Conte pointed out to Pound the futility of undertaking testing at competitions saying that it is during the offseason period that PEDs are widely used “when athletes use anabolic steroids in conjunction with intensive weight training and develop the explosive strength base that serves them throughout the competitive season”.

Pound, however, stepped down two weeks after the meeting, according to Conte, and the organization “failed to act upon the information.”

As for the ongoing Games in Beijing, Conte has this to say:

I have no evidence of doping by any of the winners of medals in Beijing, but when times begin falling like rain, questions arise, especially when the record-setters are from countries such as Jamaica and other Caribbean nations where there is no independent anti-doping federation. In the women’s 100 meters, for instance, four of the eight finalists in the event were from such countries. Jamaican women swept all three Olympic medals: Shelly-Ann Frasier’s winning time of 10.78 seconds is blazing fast, and reflects a drop from a best of 11.31 in 2007 to 10.78 in 2008, an improvement of more than five-tenths of a second in a single year and about five meters faster than before.

In the letter, Conte also talks about Usain Bolt, who won the men’s 100-meter gold medal and whose triumph Conte considers as “a shocking world-record time of 9.69.” Trinidad and Tobago’s Richard Thompson also merited a special mention in Conte’s letter.  Thompson won the silver in same event in a personal best time of 9.89.

Conte says that that something is going on considering that five out eight finalists in the men’s 100-m race were from an area “where there is minimal out-of-season testing and five-of-six 100-meter medals were won by athletes from Caribbean countries without independent anti-doping federations”. Conte, however, reiterates that he has no knowledge that said athletes were involved in illegal activity. He says: “All I know is that they and other athletes come from regions where minimal offseason testing is administered.”

Conte’s ends his appeal with these statements:

There is a desperate need for each of the Caribbean countries to have an independent and fully functioning anti-doping federation. Until that is the case, the sprinters from these countries are going to continue to be under a cloud of suspicion.

I believe that these athletes need to be frequently drug tested on a random basis during the offseason, so that the cloud of suspicion can begin to move on. It’s my opinion that more effective drug testing in the Caribbean will help to restore the credibility of entire sport of track and field.

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Tags: 100-meter event, anabolic steroid, BALCO, Caribbean, Dick Pound, Jamaica, off-season testing, Richard Thompson, track athletes, Usain Bolt, Victor Conte, WADA

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The misconceptions about steroids run deep.  It seems that people believe steroids are dangerous, that’s not true.  Steroid abuse is dangerous, not steroids.  0 (zero) people have ever died from direct steroid use, unlike 85,000/year from alcohol and 490,000/year from smoking!  In canada, personal trainers know about steroids and they do sell steroids, but they seem to lie to the media saying they don’t use or sell steroids, face it buddy you’re a liar.  People buy steroids all the time and if they are shown the safe steroid usage they’d be fine!

When searching for a personal trainer most people look at experience, price and location, but a few are looking for something more dangerous — steroids.

“I let them know the effects it has on the body and the psychological effects,” said Jeff Flunder, a personal trainer who doesn’t work with people who use or are interested in using performance-enhancing drugs. “I’m very blunt.”

STRIPPED OF TITLE

He said some trainers do use steroids and may assist others in doing the same, noting there are no requirements to use the title of personal trainer.

Earlier this month, Manitoba resident Julie Coram was stripped of a FAME fitness model title after she tested positive for three types of anabolic steroids. Coram holds the Miss Fitness Manitoba title as well, although the Manitoba Body Building Association is waiting for legal advice before making a decision on whether she will have to relinquish her championship.

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