Forbes' appeal dismissed

Former national netball captain Simone Forbes has played her last game for Jamaica after her appeal against a three-month ban was dismissed by a four-member appeals tribunal of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCo).

Forbes, who was last month found guilty of violating anti-doping rules after testing positive for the substance Clomiphene, had hoped to bring her 13-year international netball career to an end after this summer's World Netball Championships in Singapore. However, her suspension is scheduled to end on July 18, just days after the July 3-10 championships.

The 29-year-old told journalists yesterday that she is retiring from international netball but will continue her domestic career once the ban, which was originally imposed by JADCo's Disciplinary Panel of Kent Gammon, Juliet Cuthbert and Dr Peter Charles, expires.

The committee told Forbes, who learnt her fate at yesterday's hearing at the Institute of Jamaica on East Street in downtown Kingston, that the suspension was being upheld on the basis of her negligence.

"We agreed that the appellant did not ingest the substance with the intention to enhance any performance but we cannot overlook that she had a responsibility to check the WADA list," said vice-chairman of the appeals committee, Justice Wesley James, who was joined on the panel by Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Lisa Palmer Hamilton, Yvonne Kong and Dr Mark Minott.

13 years in programme

Forbes has been a member of the national netball programme since 1998 and has represented the country at every age-group level.

As a member of the Sunshine Girls, she won bronze medals at the 2003 and 2007 World Netball Championships and at the Commonwealth Games in 2002.

Forbes had assembled a high-profile legal team headed by K. Churchill Neita, who submitted what was deemed as evidence of his client's record as a national player, as well as character reference from the Jamaica Netball Association president Marva Bernard.