Warning for Elana Meyer
2003-10-08 19:09
Johannesburg - Elana Meyer was issued with a warning by Athletics SA for not attending her hearing on Wednesday regarding a positive test for caffeine early this year after a race in Bali.
The warning, however, appears to be academic in terms of official protocol since caffeine was removed from the banned list of stimulants by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) in September - this, in effect, removes the possibility that Meyer can again test for high levels of caffeine in the future.
Meyer, who is recovering at her home in Stellenbosch from a motor car accident in America last month, informed ASA that she would not be attending the continuation of her hearing that was scheduled for Wednesday.
An ASA statement said: "In terms of the IAAF rules governing banned substances in athletics, ASA is obliged to find that Meyer did in fact contravene these rules and, in line with IAAF Rules, has issued a public warning to Elana.
"In addition Meyer will forfeit any prize money, appearance money, medals and/or other prizes that she won at the event in Bali."
The statement continued: "ASA would like to commend Elana on the cooperation that she has given in the investigation into the adverse finding.
"Once again ASA wishes to emphasize the risk involved in the consumption of supplements as the labels (of the supplements), may not always indicate the presence of banned substances that may be present in them."
Caffeine test
Meyer on Wednesday confirmed that she recently informed ASA that she would not be taking her caffeine test further with the hearing.
"It has been very important for me to prove that this test is incorrect and that I have never taken any banned substance in my athletics career," said Meyer.
"The cost and duration of proving this, as well as recent developments listed below, have forced me to reconsider. I have made the decision that given the IAAF's approach to this matter, it is not worth wasting more time and resources pursuing it any further."
Caffeine was removed from the banned list of stimulants by Wada in September.
This removes the possibility that Meyer can again test for high levels of caffeine in the future.
"My main concern in fighting this matter was that I did not know where the caffeine came from that was found in my sample, if indeed the test was accurate," said Meyer.
"Should it happen a second time it would of course be much more serious. This possibility has now been removed with the removal of caffeine from the list"
Wada revealed in its September report: "Caffeine is a constituent of many foods and beverages (chocolate, tea, coffee, colas, sports gels, energy drinks etc) and total prohibition of all caffeine containing foods and beverages at or around the time of competition would be impractical."
According to Meyer, translating the above, in a female marathoner weighing 50kg or less (as is the case with her), a can and a half of cola, or two cups of tea or one cup of coffee would provide 1-2mg of caffeine per kg body mass.
"It is impractical to prohibit such quantities of food and beverage. The performance enhancement from caffeine could be analogous to that from carbohydrate loading but less than the beneficial effects of consuming adequate fluid to combat dehydration"
- SAPA