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British scientists look into causes of positive tests

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Posted: Thursday September 16, 1999 01:56 PM

Linford Christie, one of the higher-profile accused sprinters, has been cleared by the national athletics federation. AP

LONDON (AP) -- A panel of British scientists is investigating whether contaminated meat and unlicensed food supplements could be responsible for the spate of positive tests for the steroid nandrolone.

UK Sport, which oversees drug testing in Britain, said Thursday it was concerned by the possible impact of "external sources" of nadrolone metabolites.

"We are looking at the possibility of nandrolone arising through the food chain," said Michele Verroken, UK Sport's anti-doping chief. "The use of steroids in animal farming is illegal and we are consulting with the Department of Agriculture to find out what they are aware of."

Verroken said the panel would also examine whether food and nutritional supplements contain nandrolone.

"The supplements cause a considerable problem because they are unregulated and unlicensed," she said.

Experts have been puzzled by a sudden surge of positive tests for nandrolone, a muscle-building steroid that has been available for decades and detectable in standard drug tests for years.

There have been a series of positive case this summer in different sports, including high-profile cases in track and field involving former Olympic 100-meter champion Linford Christie of Britain and Jamaican sprinter Merlene Ottey.

Christie and fellow British sprinters Doug Walker and Gary Cadogan have all been cleared by the national athletics federation on grounds there was no proof the nandrolone in their system "was derived from a prohibited substance."

"I am deeply concerned when doubts are raised about the system," the UK Sport chairman, Sir Rodney Walker, said. "There is a perception that if athletes test positive, the system must be flawed or incorrect. This does nothing for the reputation of sport."

Verroken said the UK Sport panel -- comprising 20 scientists and other experts -- was beginning its research on the basis that nandrolone tests are "entirely reliable." She said the goal was to ensure the methods are "beyond reproach."

Verroken said the panel will look at how nandrolone in produced naturally in the body and the effect of exercise on the body's production of steroids.

The panel will also study new testing techniques, including the use of high resolution equipment; collection and storage of samples, and disciplinary rules and procedures.

The group has met once already and is expected to complete its work in early December. The findings will be forwarded to the International Olympic Committee, the International Amateur Athletic Federation and other world bodies.

IAAF spokesman Giorgio Reineri said the track and field federation welcomed the British initiative.

"Any study which can be useful can be taken into consideration by the IAAF medical and doping commission," he said. "We want to solve this problem once and for all."

The IAAF medical chairman, Arne Ljungqvist of Sweden, said last month that he and other experts believed the rash of nandrolone cases were due to food supplements spiked with the drug.

Under IAAF rules, athletes are considered to have committed a doping offense if a banned substance is found in their bodies, regardless of whether they took it intentionally or not.

 

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