42 athletes record doping violations in 2010–11

The number of athletes placed on the independent Anti-Doping Rule Violation Panel’s formal Register of Findings was the most since ASADA was established in 2006. Ten of the violations were in bodybuilding while there were seven each in cycling and rugby league, three in athletics and two each in Australian Rules Football, baseball and powerlifting. Gridiron, handball, hockey, kayaking, futsal, amateur rugby union, surf lifesaving, water polo and wheelchair rugby recorded one violation each. Substances involved in the violations included stimulants like methylhexaneamine which were involved in 19 cases, while 13 were attributed to anabolic agents such as testosterone and five to cannabis. Human growth hormone, beta-2 agonists, hormone antagonists and modulators and diuretics and other masking agents were involved in two cases each. Some violations involved more than one type of substance. ASADA chief executive Aurora Andruska said the high number of violations in 2010–11 reflected the spike in positive test results for the prohibited stimulant methylhexaneamine late last year. “We issued a major public announcement at that time to warn Australian athletes to carefully consider their use of supplements following this spike because there was evidence that this substance was increasingly being found in these products. “The outcome for Australian sport could have been much worse, but I’m pleased to say that our warning to athletes immediately curtailed this disturbing trend. “We must remain vigilant as there are still athletes testing positive for this stimulant around the world, so we want to remind athletes to be very careful about what they consume,” Ms Andruska said. Other results released by ASADA today showed that they conducted 7,090 tests on Australian athletes during the year, both in Australia and overseas. They had also analysed 297 reports from various intelligence sources and 2,968 referrals of performance and image enhancing drugs from the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service.