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World championship silver medalist suspended for evading doping test

On Monday morning, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced the provisional suspension of Jamaican 400m runner and 2022 world championship silver medalist Christopher Taylor for evading and refusing to submit to a sample collection, stemming from an incident in November 2022.

Taylor, an Olympic and World Championships finalist in the men’s 400m, may face a four-year ban if he is found guilty; he has not competed since Aug. 30, 2022. At the 2022 World Championships, he anchored the Jamaican 4x400m team to a silver medal.

The suspension

According to the Jamaica Observer, Taylor was contacted in November by anti-doping officials, who had turned up to conduct a test at his home in Kingston, Jamaica (the location he had indicated on his whereabouts form). When the officials arrived, Taylor was at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, waiting to catch a flight to the U.S. 

If an athlete is not where they say they are when anti-doping officials show up, it counts as a missed test. Typically, a first or second offence does not carry any penalty, but if an athlete misses three tests during a 12-month period, that constitutes a whereabouts violation, resulting in an automatic period of ineligibility.

However, in Taylor’s case, he is believed to have violated WADA Anti-Doping Code Article 2.3, which speaks to purposely “evading, refusing or failing to submit to sample collection,” resulting in a mandatory two- or four-year ban. If Taylor can establish that the rule violation was not intentional, the period of ineligibility may be reduced.

Taylor’s case

Sports lawyer Paul Greene, who has previously represented high-profile athletes, Shelby Houlihan and Peter Bol, has been representing Taylor. In the interview with the Jamaica Observer, Greene says that upon discovering that Taylor was at the airport, the doping control officer tracked him down, but Taylor refused to test because he didn’t want to miss his flight. Taylor assumed this would simply count as one of an allowable three whereabouts violations, and Greene claims Taylor would have consented to the test if he’d known his behaviour would be interpreted as an attempt to avoid being tested.

Before being notified of the suspension, Greene admitted there are some grey areas in the interpretation of rules differentiating a whereabouts failure from an attempt to evade testing, and that Taylor could either avoid any penalty or be slapped with a multi-year ban.

Peter Bol’s positive doping test revealed as “blunder” by Sports Integrity Australia

After two long months, the Peter Bol EPO-doping saga has concluded. Two independent laboratories have cleared the Australian 800m runner of using the banned substance, noting a “catastrophic blunder” in testing from Sports Integrity Australia (SIA).

In January, the 29-year-old faced a four-year suspension after he returned a positive result for the banned substance erythropoietin (EPO) from a urine sample taken in October. Upon further investigation, according to Sports Integrity Australia, neither of Bol’s A nor B samples showed the presence of EPO in his urine: “Only naturally occurring, endogenous erythropoietin was present during both tests.”

Bol said in an interview with Australia’s 9News that the entire process from the SIA was nothing but unfair to him. “To accuse me of doping without scientific proof… it’s tough, but deep down, I knew I was innocent,” said Bol.

He became a household name in Australia at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after breaking two national records in qualifying to reach the men’s 800m final, where he finished fourth. At the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, U.K., he won silver in the 800m behind Kenya’s Wyclife Kinyamal.

Pleading innocence 

Bol hired a lawyer and throughout the process, stressed his innocence on social media, saying he would do whatever was necessary to clear his name. “I told everyone that I was innocent and asked everyone in Australia to believe me and let the process play out,” Bol wrote on Twitter.

Bol voluntarily handed over his laptop, iPad and phone to the SIA to help prove his innocence and paid $1,200 to have his B-sample tested.

Subjective testing

During the investigation process, a group of Norwegian scientists raised their doubts about Peter Bol’s positive A-sample, saying the testing for EPO by the World Anti-Doping Agency remains subjective, especially in cases such as Bol’s, which delivered a “borderline” positive result.

According to the Sydney Herald, his legal team sent a letter to SIA demanding an end to the investigation.

The letter includes two independent expert analyses of Bol’s sample from October last year “never showed the presence of any synthetic EPO” and that “inexperience and incompetence at the Australian Sports Drug Testing Laboratory (ASDTL) led to an incorrect determination” of his positive A-sample.

Last month, the SIA lifted Bol’s suspension, allowing him to return to training after the B-sample tested by the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) returned an atypical finding.

Bol said he does not intend to sue SIA for damages, although his legal costs are around $50,000.

“I want SIA to see this situation as an opportunity to improve,” he said to Sydney Herald. “Not me trying to fight them. We’ve been transparent the whole time. They should be the same. What my family has gone through should never happen, but it did happen, and we want people to be held accountable.”

Peter Bol’s doping suspension lifted after B-sample does not match

The 800m Olympic finalist has been exonerated after results show an atypical finding between the two samples.

On Monday evening, Commonwealth Games 800m medallist Peter Bol’s provisional suspension for doping was lifted after his B-sample did not match his A-sample, meaning he can return to competition immediately.

Last month, the Australian 800m Olympic finalist made headlines as he returned a positive result for the banned substance erythropoietin (EPO) from a urine sample taken in October.

Throughout the process, Bol stressed his innocence and said he would do whatever was necessary to clear his name. “I told everyone that I was innocent and asked everyone in Australia to believe me and let the process play out,” Bol wrote on Twitter, as he faced the possibility of a four-year ban.

Bol voluntarily handed over his laptop, iPad and phone to Sport Integrity Australia to help prove his innocence and paid $1,200 just to have his B-sample tested.

During the process, a group of Norwegian scientists raised their doubts about Peter Bol’s positive A-sample, saying the testing for EPO by the World Anti-Doping Agency remains subjective, especially in cases such as Bol’s, which delivered a “borderline” positive result.

“I was hopeful that the process would exonerate me,” Bol wrote. “I am relieved to report that it did.”

Sport Integrity Australia (SIA) said the suspension was lifted after Bol’s B-sample produced an “atypical finding,” which is not the same as a negative test result; it’s a report from a WADA-accredited laboratory that requires further investigation.

Despite Bol being allowed to return to training, Sports Integrity Australia (SIA) released a statement saying that Bol’s case remains open, and the SIA will now seek for a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accredited laboratory to obtain a second opinion from an expert on the WADA EPO Working Group, which provides expert advice and analysis concerning the overall application of EPO testing.

Australian 800m Commonwealth medalist tests positive for EPO

On Friday morning, Athletics Australia announced the provisional suspension of middle-distance runner Peter Bol, who won the silver medal in the men’s 800m at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, U.K. 

Bol, who was fourth at the Tokyo Olympics in the men’s 800m, failed an out-of-competition urine test on Oct. 11. The 28-year-old tested positive for the banned drug erythropoietin, known as EPO.

In accordance with Athletics Australia’s anti-doping policy, Bol has been provisionally suspended, effective from Jan. 10.

Bol went on Twitter to plead his innocence, denying that he’s ever purchased or used synthetic EPO, and has requested Sport Integrity Australia and Athletics Australia to take a look at the B sample from the October test.

Under the Australian National Anti-Doping Policy, the suspended athlete is entitled to have their B Sample analyzed. The results from the B sample will be known in February.

“I am innocent and have not taken this substance as I am accused,” Bol said on Twitter.

If his B sample is positive, Bol could face a four-year ban from athletics.

EPO has been on the World Anti-Doping Prohibited List since the 1990s; it is used to improve endurance performance or to speed up recovery.

Bol emigrated to Australia from Sudan with his family when he was eight. He is currently the Oceanic record holder and the fastest Australian ever over 800m, with a personal best of 1:44:00. 

He currently trains in Melbourne with “Fast 8 Track Club” under middle-distance coach Justin Rinaldi. 

Now healthy, Canadian Brandon McBride sets running priorities for 2023, brightens holidays for others

Fully healed from a broken left foot, Brandon McBride will work to improve his mental strength on the track in 2023, with an eye on qualifying for a fourth consecutive World Athletics Championships next summer in Budapest.

The Canadian middle-distance runner will take a more experienced, strategic and smarter approach to races after falling hard to the track while jostling for position in his 800-meter heat on July 20 at the world championships in Eugene, Ore.

McBride, 28, and Navasky Anderson of Jamaica exchanged shoves near the turn off the backstretch. About 200 meters into the race, McBride said he was bumped during the cut-in and lost control but stayed on his feet before suddenly colliding with others.

The Windsor, Ont., native fell nearly five seconds off the pace and finished eighth, and last, in one minute 57.43 seconds.

"You could say it was a freak accident [but] I take full responsibility," McBride, told CBC Sports over the phone from Victoria. "It could have been avoided if I had raced smarter. I need to approach races as a six-foot-five speed/power athlete [and] have to know I can't fit in certain spaces [between opposing runners]."

Going forward, McBride suggested he would sit at the back of the pack for the "first lap or so" and work his way up from 400 metres.

"That's something I [did] last year," said the two-time Olympian, "but maybe it's something I didn't have the confidence to do during world championships."

McBride encountered a similar situation in the first round at the 2019 worlds in Doha, Qatar, where he allowed Peter Bol of Australia to cut him off and almost tripped 150 to 200 metres from the start. At the time, McBride recalled, he had the utmost confidence in his endurance and speed. He recovered to win the heat while a tired Bol faded to fifth.

"In the future, I would love to have the confidence in myself to allow the individual to go ahead instead of jostling," he said. "You have to protect your space but remember the goal of the race is to finish."

In Eugene, McBride broke the fifth metatarsal, the long bone on the outside of the foot that connects to the small toe. The four-time Canadian champion worked with physiotherapist Mary Brannigan in Windsor during his rehabilitation and Dr. Brian Murer, a chiropractic specialist based in Indiana, who solved overall movement issues the runner was experiencing.

Four weeks into recovery, McBride could walk without issue and returned to his regular training program at the beginning of October.

"Rehab was straightforward, strengthening the muscles and tendons near the bone," said McBride, who ran a Canadian-record time of 1:43.20 in 2018. "[The broken bone] was the most painful experience I've ever had. I couldn't walk for the first 72 hours and it hurt when I was at rest and when I [eventually] moved around on crutches."

McBride moved to Victoria in late November to join coach Mark Rowland, with whom he has worked since November 2021 when he joined Oregon Track Club Elite in Eugene. Five months ago, Rowland accepted a job to coach endurance athletes out of Athletics Canada's West Hub in the B.C. capital. McBride and three others also relocated and live together in a cottage.

These days, McBride runs a combined 21 kilometers across morning and evening workouts and over the past month has experienced his best period of November/December training since turning professional in June 2016.

"Physically, we're [pushing] him a little harder [than in early 2022] and he seems to be responding," Rowland told CBC Sports. "We haven't done the anaerobic speed [workouts] or speed testing because I don't think we've done enough conditioning work to put his body in that position. We'll do that probably in January."

During his downtime, McBride has kept busy with his not-for-profit group. McBride Youth United Association has partnered with several organizations and this week will help 50 families in need ahead of the holiday season.

Care packages, which will be distributed in Windsor through Friday, include cognitive toys, sensory toys, board games, action figures, building blocks, hygiene products, gift cards and food cards.

McBride and the six-member MYUA — which includes his girlfriend, Yesmina Captan — has partnered with the Border City Athletics Club, Border City Boxing Club, Windsor United Basketball Training Facility, Windsor Region Hospital and Eastern Flavours Restaurant and Banquet Hall.

"It means the world to see the direct impact you're making with these kids and their families," said McBride, who has a master's degree in business from Wayne State University in Detroit. "I want to do my best to help the youth of Windsor and their development. It ties in with our mentorship and tutoring services we're going to be offering in 2023.

"I believe every child has greatness within them. They just need an individual or situation to bring out that greatness."

Early in 2020, McBride and Captan purchased grocery cards from FreshCo in Windsor and delivered them to eight families in need during the coronavirus pandemic. Later in the year, McBride delivered over 100 winter coats for children connected to nine organizations.

Australia selects 64 squad for Tokyo Olympics

Australia has named a team of 64 athletes for the Tokyo Games, which will be the nation’s biggest ever athletics squad for an overseas Olympics.

Further to those athletes already announced, the second wave of selections includes Jeff Riseley making his fourth Olympics and Kathryn Mitchell, Dave McNeill and Henry Frayne returning for their third Games.

Riseley joins previously selected Tokyo 2020 teammates Dani Stevens and Lisa Weightman in equalling the most Olympics by Australian athletics representatives.

Dane Bird-Smith is joined by Kyle Swan and Declan Tingay in the 20km race walk, five years after he claimed bronze in Rio.

Nicola McDermott, who improved her Oceania record to 2.01m in Stockholm, is joined in the high jump by Eleanor Patterson, while Linden Hall, Jessica Hull, Ollie Hoare and Stewart McSweyn are among the 1500m team members.

Patrick Tiernan is set to double in the 5000m and 10,000m.

Australian team for Tokyo

WOMEN

100m: Hana Basic200m: Riley Day400m: Bendere Oboya800m: Catriona Bisset, Morgan Mitchell1500m: Georgia Griffith, Linden Hall, Jessica Hull5000m: Isobel Batt-Doyle, Jenny Blundell, Rose DaviesMarathon: Sinead Diver, Ellie Pashley, Lisa Weightman3000m steeplechase: Amy Cashin, Genevieve Gregson, Georgia Winkcup

100m hurdles: Liz Clay400m hurdles: Sarah CarliHigh jump: Nicola McDermott, Eleanor PattersonPole vault: Nina Kennedy, Elizaveta ParnovaLong jump: Brooke StrattonDiscus: Dani StevensJavelin: Kelsey-Lee Barber, Mackenzie Little, Kathryn Mitchell20km race walk: Katie Hayward, Bec Henderson, Jemima Montag4x400m: Ellie Beer, Angeline Blackburn, Kendra Hubbard, Bendere Oboya, Anneliese Rubie-Renshaw 

MEN

100m: Rohan Browning400m: Alex Beck, Steven Solomon800m: Peter Bol, Charlie Hunter, Jeff Riseley1500m: Jye Edwards, Ollie Hoare, Stewart McSweyn5000m: Morgan McDonald, Dave McNeill, Patrick Tiernan10,000m: Patrick TiernanMarathon: Liam Adams, Jack Rayner, Brett Robinson3000m steeplechase: Ben Buckingham, Matthew Clarke, Edward Trippas

110m hurdles: Nick HoughHigh jump: Brandon StarcPole vault: Kurtis MarschallLong jump: Henry FrayneDiscus: Matthew Denny20km race walk: Dane Bird-Smith, Kyle Swan, Declan Tingay50km race walk: Rhydian Cowley

Decathlon: Cedric Dubler, Ashley Moloney