Rachel Wallader Partially Cleared by the Appeal Panel
Rachel Wallader, the British shot putter had been given her Olympic eligibility back after a landmark ruling given by UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) appeal tribunal. The 21-years old athlete had failed a routine drug test back in May. She had been found positive
for the stimulant Methylhexaneamine (MHA) and had been consequently banned in August for a year.
Wallader has never denied taking MHA, but only inadvertently. She had been taking a dietary supplement upon which MHA was not labelled. Last week, the UKAD panel had finally accepted it and had reduced her ban to four months. What this means is that the
athlete who has been coached by Geoff Capes, the world’s strongest man and three times Olympian, would not be prohibited from taking part into Olympics 2012 on behalf of England as only a ban for longer than six months results in this sanction. The removal
of ban is not only good news for Wallader, it is equally pleasing for Capes.
Commenting upon the ban lifting, Capes told the media reporters that it was fantastic news for Rachel, who was a lovely girl and an extremely talented athlete. The 61-years old athlete was of the view that at first place the young athlete should never had
been subjected to the ban as this made her miss an entire season to compete at commonwealth games. He lamented the fact that right from the outset they had been providing the evidence that Rachel had checked the list of banned items more than once; she had
even consulted the company that made the supplement to confirm about what was in it. However, despite of all that, the poor girl was trampled right in the first hearing. So, even the partial reversal was good news for them.
Amid MHA had been at the centre of a flurry of the doping cases for over last eighteen months, Wallader’s case had added significance to it. Since 2009, five Jamaican sprinters along with a spate of athletes intending to participate in 2010 commonwealth
games have been found positive with it. The most recent case involved nine unnamed athletes from Australia; however, the case of Wallader’s success would definitely provide them an encouragement to look forward for better results.
Wallader, who happened to be a sports therapy student at the University of Birmingham, had ingested the MHA in a muscle Finesse product known as ‘endure’. The stimulant had been labelled on its contents as ‘3-dimethylamylamine’ which is a synonym for MHA,
the banned drug but had not been previously on list of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
While giving his comments upon the recent decision of the UKAD, Walter Nicholls, Wallader’s lawyer argued that when it was proved that the drug had been taken inadvertently, the girl deserved a far more lenient punishment than the already reduced ban of
a year. He also pointed out that MHA had been classified as a less serious substance by the world anti-doping agency shortly after the girl had been accused of using it; it was perhaps a double bad luck for her.
Putting further light on the matter, Nicholls told that the panel had accepted that if a stimulant had been taken two days before the competition, it would not aid the performance of the athletes. The panel also accepted that MHA was not listed on the label.
He was of the view that since the substance was derived from geranium oil and could even be found in some jams, it was easy to understand how people could fall foul of that.
Talking upon taking the preventive measures, Nicholls said that the process should start from revising the advice given to the athletes and the emphasis should be given upon teaching them regarding how dangerous using prohibited substances could be for them.
The only solution of the problem was to not to take the banned drugs at all, not even on the prescription of the physicians.
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