Forbes decision postponed

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

Former national netball captain, Simone Forbes will know on Friday whether she will receive the maximum two-year ban from the sport or escape without punishment on the basis of evidence in the medical report provided by her physician, after returning an adverse analytical finding.

This was the position coming out of her abbreviated hearing with the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) yesterday at the Institute of Jamaica on East Street in downtown Kingston.

The decision has implications on her participation in the upcoming World Netball Championships (WNC), to be held in Singapore in July.

The hearing was adjourned after Deputy Solicitor General Lackston Robinson, who is representing JADCO, told the commission's chairman, Kent Gammon, that he would need to analyse Forbes' medical report to facilitate him questioning the athlete.

Gammon, along with members of his panel, which includes Olympian Juliet Cuthbert and Peter Charles, agreed with Robinson and adjourned the proceedings.

Forbes tested positive for clomiphene, a drug listed on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) 2011 list of banned substances under Section Four - 'Hormone Antagonists and Modulators'.

Clomiphene, also known by its chemical name, 'clomid', is a common selective receptor modulator that is used quite frequently by steroid users.

Forbes wrote to Dr Patrece Charles-Freeman, JADCO's executive director, on April 15, stating that she would be waving her right to have her B sample tested and that she would not be challenging the analytical finding.

Professor Joseph Frederick, who specialises in reproductive medicine at the University Hospital of the West Indies, said the positive finding was a result of treatment that he administered to Forbes, following a pelvic surgery. Frederick told the commission he was unaware the drug was on WADA's list of banned substances.

Forbes was represented at yesterday's hearing by Dr Aggrey Irons.