Sprinter Sheri-Ann Brooks, one of five Jamaican athletes to test positive for a banned stimulant in June, has been cleared for the world championships because of an “irregularity” in testing for her second sample.
Brooks, who tested positive for the stimulant methylxanthine along with four other world squad members at the Jamaican national championships, was cleared after a disciplinary hearing on Wednesday, Jamaican anti-doping officials said.
“We had a meeting with Ms Sheri-Ann Brooks today and we were unable to impose a sanction on her, as there was an irregularity with the testing of the B sample that was raised by her counsel,” Kent Gammon, head of the Jamaica Anti Doping Agency’s disciplinary committee, told reporters after the hearing. “Therefore, we were unable to conclude that she was guilty of an offense.”
The four other athletes — Alodin Fothergill, Yohan Blake, Lansford Spence and Marvin Anderson — face disciplinary hearings into their failed tests.
A source with knowledge of the testing proceedings said local doping officials had breached procedure by authorizing the B sample tests without authorization from the athletes.
The source said only Brooks’ B sample was tested before the foul-up was discovered.
“This means that the athlete must be cleared, as she did not give permission for her urine sample to be tested behind her back,” the source said.
Although a Jamaica athletics official on Monday said the doping hearings would preclude them from going to the world championships in Berlin later this month, officials on Wednesday clarified that Brooks would be eligible to join the world team.
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