Banned
Jamaica’s 200m Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Jason Livermore has been banned for two years by the Independent Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel yesterday, and will be eligible to return to the track in February 2019.
The 29-year-old Livermore was found to have violated Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission’s (JADCO) Article 2.1 rule, which refers to the “presence of a prohibited substance or its metabolites or markers in an athlete’s sample”.
Attorney-at-law Kent Gammon, chairman of the three-member Independent Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel, read the verdict yesterday at the Jamaica Conference Centre.
“Having considered all of the evidence before us, we have been unanimously persuaded — to the degree of proof required — that Mr Livermore did in fact have prohibited substances in his person. And whilst we are of the view that Mr Livermore did not necessarily intended to cheat, he was negligent not satisfying himself that the drugs were not prohibited substances and in fact should have applied for a therapeutic use exemption certificate,” said Gammon.
“The Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel therefore is persuaded that you are in breach of Article 2.1 of the 2015 Anti-Doping Rules, and in the circumstances of this case, the athlete is ineligible for two years, and that will be counted from the period when he was apprised of his provisional suspension on the eighth of February, which is a period of eight months and 18 days to the 26th of October, and that period will be deducted from the two years of ineligibility,” he noted.
Livermore, who was tested in December 2016 and was notified in February 2017 that two anabolic steroids — Clomifhene and Mestorolone (metabolite) — were found in his urine sample, will serve just 16 months, since the suspension has been retroactive since February 2017.
Clomifhene and Mestorolone are linked to the enhancement of low sperm quality in males and is also a medication used to treat infertility in women who do not ovulate.
Livemore revealed he was taking the medications from November 29, 2016, because of a life-threatening situation, and that he wanted to start his family.
The former Calabar High and Akan track club star, who won a bronze medal in the 200m at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and gold in the 4x100m, showed little emotion but refused to comment on the ruling afterwards.
However, his Manager Lorenzo Sandford, who acted as his legal representative during the hearing that started in September, said he will peruse the panel’s rulings before deciding on whether to appeal or not.
“The verdict is the verdict and we would have just gotten the document of the verdict, so it’s a matter of reading it over and see where we go from there. We wouldn’t be able to say that at this point in time because we have to look over the notes. The panel has spoken and we will read the panel’s decision,” said Sandford.
“At this point, whether I am in agreement with that is neither here nor there… we would have argued against that (negligence) throughout the course of the hearing, so all evidence was submitted and the panel has made their decision,” he noted.
Livermore will miss the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia.
“The athlete has been given two years and that’s two years out of an athlete’s career, a promising athlete, and so it has to be disappointing,” he remarked.
“You would have known Mr Livermore’s progress in the sport and you talking about an elite athlete… it’s a 10.03 (100m) athlete we are talking about, a 20.13 (200m), so that’s a promising athlete — so it must be disappointing (that he won’t be able to compete any time soon),” Sandford added.