Sri Lankan sprinter awaiting test results

Sri Lankan sprinter awaiting test results

JAKARTA (JP): The organizing committee of the 11th Asian
Amateur Track and Field Championships, which concluded in Jakarta
on Sept. 24, is waiting for the result of Susanthika Jayasinghe's
second drug test sample before confirming if Sri Lanka's top
sprinter has failed her drug test.

The Sri Lankan sports authorities made public on Wednesday the
International Amateur Athletic Federation's previously
confidential report on Jayasinghe's A sample, which tested
positive for the steroid Nandrolone in Jakarta.

Nandrolone, like other steroids, is used to enhance muscle
bulk.

Jayasinghe clocked 23 seconds, exactly 0.80 seconds ahead of
China's Chen Yangchun, and won the Asian championships women's
200m dash on Sept. 23. Jayasinghe also broke the championships
women's 100m dash record by clocking 11 minutes 30 seconds, but
China's Cui Danfeng whittled it to 11.28. Jayasinghe's urine was
taken after she broke the record.

The Federation is waiting for the Sri Lankan Amateur Athletic
Association's reply as to when it will send a delegate to Tokyo
to witness the testing of the B sample, championships director
Sumartoyo Martodihardjo told Kompas and The Jakarta Post
yesterday.

The urine was analyzed in the Federation's drug testing
laboratory in Tokyo, Japan.

The testing will be carried out regardless of Sri Lanka's
reply, he added.

Sumartoyo was quoting a Federation fax that he received a few
days ago. As a rule, track and field athletes who test positive
still have 28 days to ask for a testing of their B sample, which
must then be analyzed within three weeks of the request.

A competitor's urine sample is normally split into two and a
positive result is only announced after the B test confirms the
findings of the A test.

However, a recent change in the Federation's doping policy,
spurred by the doping scandal before and during last year's Asian
Games in Hiroshima, states that positive A-test results will be
released to speed up the doping control procedures and to reduce
the risk of media leaks.

This means that positive drug tests can be announced after the
analysis of only one urine sample instead of two.

Sumartoyo said that Sri Lanka is now asking the Federation if
Jayasinghe will be allowed to take part in its national
championships.

"Compared to her appearance in the Asian junior track and
field championships here last year, I observed that Jayasinghe
became more muscular at last month's Asian championships,"
Sumartoyo commented.(arf)