Dunkley banned!
J’can sacked with two-year suspension for drugs
BY KAYON RAYNOR Senior staff reporter raynork@jamaicaobserver.com
Friday, November 28, 2008
Sprinter Julien Dunkley has been handed a mandatory two-year ban by the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA) following his positive test for the illegal substance Boldenone.
DUNKLEY… tested positive for illegal substance Boldenone
“The latest with the case is that he (Dunkley) has been banned for the mandatory two years and this has taken effect from the time when the positive result came back when he was provisionally banned, which would be in July when we got the results from the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations),” the JAAA’s second vice-president, Dr Warren Blake, told the Observer yesterday.
This means that Dunkley, now 32, is ineligible to compete until July 2010, effectively ending his career.
"He had not taken up any of the options that he had to attend the disciplinary hearings or to challenge the result, so in effect the procedure has gone ahead and the ban has been effected.
“The IAAF has been written to inform them that he has been banned and he has been so informed himself,” Dr Blake explained, noting that the letters to Dunkley and IAAF were delivered some time in October.
Dunkley’s suspension comes as little surprise, given the fact that this newspaper reported on October 8, 2008, that the sprinter had resigned himself to the ban, citing the high financial costs associated with attempting to disprove the findings.
“I mean, you’re talking about, right off the top, lawyers want US$30,000. Then you’re talking about US$10,000 for trace evidence test. Then you’re talking about another US$700 for DNA test. That stuff adds up. And then you’re talking about the money and resource to travel to Jamaica, so after a while you’ll spend US$50,000 to $60,000 and the results still turn out to be the same,” Dunkley told the Observer at the time from his North Carolina home, in an exclusive interview.
The sprinter’s comments came over a month after IAAF medical commission member, Dr Herb Elliot, confirmed that Dunkley’s ‘B’ sample had returned positive for the banned drug, Boldenone.
The substance for which Dunkley tested positive is an anabolic steroid, which was developed for veterinary use, mostly for the treatment of horses.
Dunkley was omitted from Jamaica’s original 53-member athletics team to the Beijing Olympics, days after the Observer broke the news of his initial positive drugs test.
He clocked 10.23 seconds to finish sixth in the 100-metre final at the National Senior Championships in June and earned a reserve spot on the country’s 4x100m Olympic relay team.
Dunkley’s positive test was the second to have been detected by Jamaican authorities in the past four years. Sprinter Steve Mullings, who won the 200 metres at the 2004 Olympic Trials, was banned for two years after testing positive for testosterone.
[b]Other Jamaicans to have tested positive for banned substances include sprinters Merlene Ottey (Nandrolone); Patrick Jarrett (Stanozolol), shot putter Dorian Scott (marijuana) and long/triple jumper Suzette Lee (Salbutamol, which is used for the treatment of asthma, chronic bronchitis and other breathing disorders).
Jarrett was suspended for two years, while Ottey escaped a ban as her ‘B’ sample returned negative. Scott and Lee both received public warnings.[/b]