Bring it on!
“Bring it on” was the response of the management team of embattled Jamaican athlete Kaliese Spencer at the news that the Commonwealth Games gold medallist was one of two athletes alleged by the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) to have avoided being drug-tested last year, a breach of their rules.
Marvin Anderson, who spoke to the Jamaica Observer minutes after he returned to the island on Tuesday night from Asia and Europe, said they are prepared to roll up their sleeves to “protect her good name and her reputation as a true ambassador of Jamaica”.
Spencer and World Championships relay bronze medallist Riker Hylton were on Tuesday confirmed by the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) as the two Jamaican athletes who have violated the JADCO anti-doping rules that speaks to “Evading, refusing or failing to submit to sample collection.”
A release from the JAAA on Tuesday afternoon said both athletes, who were part of the Bert Cameron training group last year when the incident was alleged to have taken place, “have been referred to the Independent Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel for an anti-doping violation”.
The allegations are that the athletes “have violated article 2.3” of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) rules that says, in effect, they refused to give a sample when asked to by a JADCO collections officer.
The release from the JAAA also said: “We have been advised by JADCO that athletes Kaliese Spencer and Riker Hylton have been referred to the Independent Anti Doping Disciplinary Panel for a hearing to be conducted in accordance with Article 8 of the JADCO Anti-doping Rules 2015.”
It continued: “As the matter is now before the Disciplinary Panel, we will not be commenting any further on the matter.”
Both athletes have denied the allegations and a release from Spencer’s management went further to say they were willing to go the full distance in their denial of the allegations. “Ms Spencer’s management and legal teams view this alleged violation as entirely baseless and intends to pursue all legal channels necessary to protect her good name and her reputation.”
While acknowledging that they had in fact been notified of the allegations, they also said: “Ms Spencer categorically refutes any assertion that she has refused or evaded a drug test. This allegation is simply false, as Ms Spencer has always made herself available to be tested by JADCO.”
Hylton, a member of the Jamaican team that placed third in the men’s 4x400m relays at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, has protested his innocence, saying he was only approached by the collections officer as he was about to leave a training session after being there for a while.
Spencer won the gold medals in the women’s 400m hurdles at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Beijing, China, in 2006 — setting a then national junior record 55.11 seconds — and the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.
A multiple IAAF Diamond league champion, World Championships and Olympic Games finalists, she also won silver medals in the 400m and the 4x400m in the World Indoors Championships in 2014 and was part of the Jamaican women’s 4x400m relay team at the Berlin World Championships in 2009.