British heavyweight boxer Ali Adams has been banned for a period of two years after he tested positive for an anabolic steroid following his International Masters title defeat by 2000 Olympic champion Audley Harrison on 26 May 2012.
The Chelsea-based fighter, Adams, who was beaten in four rounds by Harrison, failed a drug test for stanozolol that was conducted immediately after the bout. Stanozolol is the same steroid for which Ben Johnson, the former Canadian sprinter, tested positive at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. Stanozolol, the synthetic anabolic steroid derived from the male sex hormone dihydrotestosterone, is commonly used by sportsmen to benefit from improved protein synthesis that further translates to muscle growth gains and leads to increases in muscle force production and aid muscle recovery following bouts of exercise. Stanozolol is categorized by WADA under category S1. Anabolic Agents; 1. Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS); a. Exogenous AAS of the 2012 Prohibited List.
The 31-year-old boxer provided an In-Competition sample for doping control purposes at the International Masters Heavyweight Title competition in Brentwood, Essex that was submitted for analysis to the Drug Control Centre, Kings’ College, Harlow. It was reported on 1 June 2012 by the laboratory to the UK Anti-Doping that an adverse analytical finding in respect of 3-hydroxystanozolol, a metabolite of stanozolol, had been detected in the Sample. After this, a notice of charge was issued to Ali Adams on 13 June 2012 for a violation of ADR 2.1 and ADR 2.2 in relation to the adverse analytical finding for Stanozolol and Adams was also provisionally suspended with immediate effect. The boxer waived his right to B sample analysis on 26 June 2012 and admitted to the violations on 5 July 2012.
It was claimed by Adams that he received medical treatment and massage for an ongoing neck injury and the massage therapist injected him on two different occasions with an unknown substance that was communicated to him as an anti-inflammatory and these injections must have been the cause of the adverse analytical finding.
UK Anti-Doping announced a provisional suspension for Adams since 13 June 2012 and his period of ineligibility in accordance with ADR 10.9 commences on 13 June 2012 and will expire at midnight on 12 June 2014.
UK Anti-Doping Director of Legal Graham Arthur said stanozolol is banned at all times in sport and there is no reason for it to be found in the body of an athlete and the repercussions for using such substances are serious. Arthur added that this positive finding was the result of a targeted intelligence-led test and this case demonstrates UK Anti-Doping makes use of intelligence to inform our anti-doping programs in the United Kingdom.
Adams’ violation is the latest in a succession of positive drug tests in boxing this year after Larry Olubamiwo was suspended in June 2012 for four years after multiple anti-doping rule violations and taking 13 banned substances, including human growth hormone and anabolic steroids. Earlier this year, the world title re-match of Amir Khan with Lamont Peterson was called off 19 days before the contest after it was revealed that Peterson had taken a form of synthetic testosterone.
SARMS or Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators that mimic testosterone and totally undetectable are sweeping world sport these days.
The new designer drug is believed to be already being used in Australian high performance sport.
“SARMS just enhances testosterone production and/or utilisation,” Charlie Francis, former coach of Ben Johnson, said.â€And you throw that together with human growth hormone and you’ve got a pretty potent cocktail.”
One of Australia’s premier anti-doping experts and the manager of the only World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratory in Australia, Dr Catrin Goebel, concede that it will still be difficult to know if a gold medal-winning athlete at next year’s London Olympics could be tainted by drugs.
Goebel, however, remarked that she has no doubts they would eventually be caught, and that testing is now barely a step behind, if not in front, of the cheats.
”I honestly think if there was something these days that athletes were taking, I don’t think it would be that far away from us any longer,” she said.
The World Championships hosted by Canada turned out to be an embarrassment after one of their 100m sprinters tested positive for an anabolic steroid.
Venolyn Clarke, who finished eighth in her quarter-final heat, was found to have been tested positive for stanozolol – the same drug that brought an abrupt end to the illustrious career of Ben Johnson after he had won the Olympic 100m final in Seoul in 1998.
Clarke now faces a four-year ban from competition.
Two decades ago, the world witnessed Ben Johnson fall to disgrace, yellow-eyed, shame-faced and seemingly faster than light, The Canadian set the image for the public perception of a drug cheat but the Johnson model is close to obsolete today.
Today, anti-doping officials share unanimity about what the cheats are using. Blood-doping, erythropoietin (EPO) and its variants, growth hormone, testosterone and designer steroids are manipulated for avoiding detection.
It is believed that these modern doping techniques and products will be powering some athletes to glory in the Olympics.
Ben Johnson, a shy and stuttering 19-year-old Jamaican sprinter who was made a disgraced Olympic 100m champion in 1988 and still branded the most notorious cheat in sporting history recently said that his revelations will shock the entire sporting world.
Johnson who will publish his autobiography, Seoul to Soul, next month described how Charlie Francis, his coach and who had been like a second father to him, sold the idea of doping to him with murky logic.
In his book, Johnson will admit to charges of doping and suggests his drink in Seoul was spiked with a drug he had always avoided. Johnson also said that he stopped taking steroids six weeks before the Games and he tested positive for Stanozolol when he was also using other steroids.
The Canadian coach, Charlie Francis, whose star sprinter, Ben Johnson, was the first Olympic champion to be stripped of a gold medal after testing positive for anabolic steroids died in Toronto at the age of 61 years.
Francis received worldwide criticism after he made an unapologetic admission that his athletes used performance enhancing drugs.
Richard Pound, a former vice president of the I.O.C., said Francis became increasingly frustrated in the late 1970s and ’80s with what he felt was a lack of response from international track officials to punish athletes using performance enhancing drugs.
Canadian Ben Johnson was stripped of the gold medal for this world record-setting 100-meter win after he tested positive for steroids.
NBC said the gold would be awarded to Carl Lewis and IOC spokeswoman Michele Verdier said the medal could either be given to Lewis or the first place may be left vacant.
Heidebrecht acknowledged a Canadian contention of sabotage that the steroid might have been given to Johnson after the race.
Claims and confessions of sabotage and cover-ups disclosed in autobiography of Ben Johnson will not be investigated by the governing world body of athletics because the body is not obliged to act under its own statue of limitations.
Johnson, the disgraced Seoul Olympics 100m champion, claims that his drink was spiked with the banned steroidStanozolol just before he went for a urine test after his Olympic triumph.
The claims will not be explored as the International Association of Athletics Federations has a self-imposed statute of limitations for eight years in doping cases and the Johnson doping incident traces back to the Seoul games that ended 21 years ago.
Ben Johnson, the disgraced former sprinter who trained under Charlie Francis who just passed away last week, has claimed a book due in September would be providing new evidence that he was a sabotage victim.
Johnson was stripped of his 100m gold and world record at the 1988 Olympics after testing positive for steroids.
Johnson that proceeds from sales of the book will be used to Jamaica’s Track And Field Association to help kids in his native hometown.