The first day of the hearing for a doping violation involving Jamaican sprinter Sherone Simpson got underway at the Jamaica Conference Centre on Tuesday January 7th, 2014.
The first day of the hearing for a doping violation involving Jamaican sprinter Sherone Simpson got underway at the Jamaica Conference Centre on Tuesday January 7th, 2014.
The case began with the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) lawyer, Mr. Lackston Robinson and lead defence lawyer, Kwame Gordon wrangling over whether or not a document submitted by the defence team should be considered as evidence or a statement by Simpson. It was eventually agreed by both parties, upon the insistence of Mr. Robinson, that the document be regarded as a statement, since it was prepared by Italian police and only signed by Ms. Simpson.
Before Ms. Simpson took the stand, Robinson argued that her defence of ‘mitigating circumstances’, would not be accepted and that the veteran athlete was significantly negligent.
Under direct examination, Gordon and Simpson highlighted the time and care spent by the athlete in determining whether or not the supplement Epiphany B1 was safe for consumption by her.
Simpson said, “I used the search engine Google to check the WADA prohibited list for 2013, and this was not my first time searching. I checked the WADA list and the list on the bottle of the names that I was not familiar with. I Googled all the names except the familiar ones like B12. There were no alarm bells and I was not brought back to the WADA list.”
Simpson went on to explain that she deliberately typed in the name of a banned substance and was brought back to the WADA list. She then went onto the website of Epiphany B1 to see if anything might be missing from the bottle. Nothing was missing, so she proceeded to read upon the product which was said to help with the brain. Again she mentioned that there were no red flags.
It was revealed that the time taken to complete all the research over a three day period was more than 14 hours. It was on the third day after receiving the supplement from trainer Chris Xureb that Simpson started using it.
Simpson stated that she received the call from the WADA doctor about 3:00am while at her hotel in Italy (that she had failed a drugs test) and she queried of him if he was sure it was her or if by chance he had made a mistake. He said he was sure.
“I was devastated, I cried,” she said. “I knew it had to be something Chris (Xureb) gave me because I never had a positive test before.”
“I contacted WADA because I am not a cheat. I wanted WADA to test everything Chris and I had,” she insisted.
A raid of both her room and that of the trainer Chris Xureb was done by the Italian police and she was taken to the police station where she was questioned with the aid of a translator for about 3 hours.
Under cross examination, JADCO lawyer, Robinson tried to establish that Simpson was a seasoned athlete who she had been running since she was nine years old. That she was familiar with all the WADA doping rules and that she had not taken enough care to protect herself in spite of all this.
The hearing will continue today.
Photo: Sherone Simpson
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