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WADA President scheduled to arrive on Friday

By Kayon Raynor

 

Sir Craig Reedie, President of the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA), is set to arrive in Jamaica Friday afternoon (4:26pm via London) for meetings with the boards of the Jamaica Anti-doping Commission and the Jamaica Olympic Association.

Sir Craig, who is also a Vice President of the IOC, is the first WADA President to visit Jamaica’s shores.

According to president of the JOA Mike Fennell, Sir Craig “will be apprised of the improvements in Jamaica’s efforts, in the fight against doping."

Fennell added that “(Sir Craig) will also be provided with updates about the new anti-doping legislation passed last December and JADCO’s educational programme which has been rolled out and plans for drug testing in 2015.”

Sir Craig who started his three-year term as head of WADA in January 2014, is also scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and Sports Minister Natalie Neita-Headley.

The previous high-ranking WADA official to visit Jamaica was Director-General David Howmanin, in May 2010.

Subsequently, a three-man WADA team came to Jamaica in October 2013 to carry out a forensic audit of JADCO's systems, following a string of positive drug tests, including that of Olympic and World Championship medalists Asafa Powell, Sherone Simpson and Veronica Campbell Brown.  

Campbell Brown, who tested positive for the prohibited diuretic Hydrochlorothiazide on May 4 in 2013, had her two-year ban from the IAAF overturned, upon appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS). This as her urine sample, which was collected by JADCO, did not follow WADA’s international procedural standards for testing.

Powell and Simpson, who tested positive for the banned stimulant Oxilofrine in June 2013, and each banned for 18 month by the Jamaica Anti-doping Disciplinary Panel, had their bans reduced to six months by CAS.

Since the string of positive tests in 2013, JADCO has changed its board of directors, employed a new executive director and implemented a battery of recommendations proposed by WADA to improve its systems and procedures.

Sir Craig's visit coincides with that of IAAF Vice President Lord Sebastian Coe, who is scheduled to have meetings with JAAA officials over the weekend, as he runs against fellow Olympic gold medalist Sergey Bubka to replace Lamine Diack as president of the IAAF.

 



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