Topic: News:3 Strikes & Out for Australia But No Stop in Sight

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Weightlifter Rae banned for 2 years after 2nd positive test for cannabis

SYDNEY, Australia: Commonwealth Games gold medallist Chris Rae has been banned for two years after a second doping offense for cannabis.

Rae, the super heavyweight weightlifting champion at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, returned a positive test at the Australian titles last August.

The 27-year-old Rae had previously served a six-month suspension for cannabis use in 2004.

The Australian Weightlifting Federation said the two-year ban was mandatory for a second offense.

The competition ban extends to August 2009.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Van Tienen ban blasted by State officials - Guilty of using Benzylpiperazine
By Rob Shaw

TASMANIAN weightlifting officials have blasted the announcement that Evandale's Belinda Van Tienen has became the ninth Australian lifter to be banned for doping since 2006.

"This is just ridiculous and a complete farce," said Weightlifting Tasmania vice- president Chris Chugg.

Chugg is the coach of Camilla Fogagnolo, of Dromedary, who, along with Frankford's Jenna Myers was banned from the sport in 2005 for using the stimulant Benzylpiperazine.

The pair had tested positive at the national championships and in their absence Van Tienen, who may not have been tested because she did not place at the titles, was selected for the Commonwealth Games.

Yesterday, the Australian Sports Anti- Doping Authority announced that an investigation had found that Van Tienen used Benzylpiperazine at the 2005 Mermet Cup in the US.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld an Australian Weightlifting Federation sanction, banning the former St Patrick's College student for the maximum two years.

However, the decision to backdate the suspension to when Van Tienen last competed, which makes her eligible to resume competition on November 27, will not be viewed favorably by her two fellow Tasmanians who have just returned from two-year bans for the same offense.

"I think both Jenna and Camilla would be very disappointed and feel a certain injustice," Weightlifting Tasmania president Tony O'Malley said.

"I'd question the justice of this when these two girls have lost two years out of their careers. They lost their last year as juniors and the chance to compete at the world juniors and one or both would have been likely to compete at the Commonwealth Games."

Chugg added: "Camilla has gone through so much and this is just another kick in the teeth. The whole thing is very sad for all the girls involved. They were all using the same weight-loss product as an energy drink and I've no doubt that all of them did so inadvertently.

"I feel very sorry for Belinda. I'm sure she did not plan any of this. But it's the system that is the farce where the other two girls missed two years of their careers.

"I don't blame the sport I blame the system, it's just not fair yet."

Myers and Fogagnolo returned to competition this year, both representing Australia at the Oceania championships in New Zealand. Myers also competed at the Olympic trials.

O'Malley said: "They purchased a product that was not labeled correctly and bore the consequences of that."

He said an International Olympic Committee study had found that 15 per cent of commonly available supplements in health food shops contained substances that could produce a positive drug test.

Van Tienen's Mermet Cup results have now been disqualified since the announcement.

[John Way]

BZP, KM and the rest

http://www.ergogenics.org/keithmurphy.html

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Aussie athletes suspected of drug use

A SECRET list of almost 900 Australian athletes suspected of using banned substances was the motivation for a controversial attempt to gain access to their private medical records.

New documents obtained under Freedom of Information (FOI) laws by The Australian reveal the extent of the project by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority.

ASADA was secretly planning to search through the records before being informed earlier this year by the Australian Solicitor General that, contrary to initial advice, it did not have legal authority to conduct the pilot program.

In September last year, ASADA provided Medicare with a list of 878 athletes and 18 support personnel, including doctors, pharmacists, trainers and coaches.

Another doctor was added to the list in January.

The authority asked that the athletes' prescription records for the past five years be cross referenced with the official list of banned substances.

ASADA had told Medicare of its concerns that some doctors were "becoming known as the go-to person" for performance-enhancing drugs.

An ASADA spokesman was not immediately able to elaborate on the fate of the 897 suspects, whose identities remain secret.

The Australian has been unable to determine if they include any Olympians.