Nine Australian sports stars fail drug tests

SYDNEY - Nine Australian sports stars have tested positive for the banned stimulant that cost Nigerian sprinter Osayomi Oludamola her Commonwealth Games 100-metre gold medal in New Delhi this month, authorities said Saturday.

The nine, who have not been named, face two-year bans after testing positive for DMAA, or methylhexaneamine, a substance used in some bodybuilding and dietary supplements and in party drugs.

Australian Commonwealth Games Association chief executive Perry Crosswhite said no members of the team that competed in New Delhi had tested positive.

Drug testing at the Commonwealth Games is the responsibility of the World Anti-Doping Agency, but its rubric is the same as the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA).

“I can confirm that ASADA tested our team before they went away, and certainly they would have advised us if any of them had tested positive before they went,” Crosswhite said. “We have had no positives as far as our team in Delhi is concerned.”

The positive results prompted the ASADA to warn athletes about the inadvertent use of the substance.

“This spike in positive test results is a timely reminder to all athletes to exercise the utmost caution in checking the contents of supplements and other products they choose to use,” ASADA chief executive Aurora Andruska said.

The substance was put on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned list at the end of last year, and positive tests carry a maximum two-year penalty.

Sports Minister Mark Arbib was quick to absolve Australian athletes of doping. “I would hate to see an athlete receive a ban because they hadn’t carefully checked the ingredients of a supplement,” he said.

Andruska said DMAA was marketed under the trade name Geranamine as a substance with fat-burning properties.

“Geranium oil, this has been around for years, so it’s not a new substance,” she said. “The main thing here is that we ensure that athletes are aware of the strict liability principle under the World Anti-Doping Code, and under that, they are ultimately responsible for any substance found in their body regardless of how it got there.”