Mystery of the third (urine) sample: VCB's legal team hints at sabotage

Following her exoneration by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) the legal team which represented Veronica Campbell Brown has disclosed that sabotage is being looked at as a possible explanation for her positive drug test last year.

The positive test came after the highly decorated athlete’s participation in last year’s Jamaica International Invitational meet.

At a press conference in Kingston on Friday, it was P.J Patterson QC, lead attorney for Campbell Brown's defence team, who asserted that sabotage was not being ruled out.

"Was the substance sent to Montreal confined purely to the urine which was passed by VCB, in two attempts? And, when one adds to that, the evidence, that there was a third sample, whose was the third sample? From where did it come? What went to Montreal finally, could well have been VCB's sample, plus... plus!"

Howard Jacobs, another of her attorneys, pointed to the inconsistencies in the evidence of the witnesses at the disciplinary hearing last September which proved that no doping rule violation was committed by the athlete.

Campbell Brown, 31, tested positive for the banned diuretic hydrochlorothiazide and was subsequently given a reprimand and public warning by the disciplinary panel of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA), following her provisional suspension.

The case was later sent back to the JTAA disciplinary panel by the Doping Review Board of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAA) to impose a two year sanction.

Campbell Brown then took her case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAF) and was cleared on February 24, on the ground that the integrity of her sample collection process had been compromised. 

Full exoneration, always the goal

Regarding the initial recommendation that a public warning be issued to the athlete, Mr. Patterson, a former Prime Minister of Jamaica, stressed that Campbell Brown’s defence team would not have accepted that option, and would have gone to the CAF on that basis alone.

"Neither our client nor her three Counsel were prepared to rest until she was fully exonerated as we maintain she was innocent of any transgression ,” Patterson affirmed. That position, he said, had ultimately been vindicated.

Damage to reputation

Campbell Brown, in her turn at the microphone, strongly defended her personal integrity and had strong words for members of the local and international media for what she said were malicious attempts to try and destroy her character and reputation.

She disclosed that she had suffered significant financial and other setbacks during her time off the track.

"My inability to defend my 200m title (at the 2013 World Athletics Championships in Moscow) was a huge loss. In fact, just being unable to compete was financially and emotionally devastating," she said, adding that ordeal cost her approximately 90% of her possible earnings during the period of suspension.

Campbell Brown returned to action just in time for the World Indoor Championships last week in Poland. She placed fifth in the finals of the 60m race.

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