EDITORIAL - Time for deep introspection

That five more of our athletes - including Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson - tested positive for banned substances is a body blow to Jamaican athletics.

It has happened when we are still reeling from the shock of Veronica Campbell-Brown's positive test and the six-year ban of Dominique Blake for a second doping infraction.

This, however, is not the time for a pitiful whinging, feeling set upon and/or of being the victim of hidden hands or circumstance. The situation requires deep introspection by the track and field community - associations, clubs, athletes. They must ask themselves hard questions about how they manage their affairs and what is to be done to repair, and ultimately sustain, Jamaica's athletics brand.

Athletes and sport administrations ought to know that many people question the capacity of a country the size of ours to produce so many world-class athletes. Having presumed that Jamaica cheated its way to the top, they constantly search for evidence to prove the point. Recent events provide them purchase.

The job now is to, where that is the case, help our athletes prove their innocence and, more important, provide insulation against the cheats and place our systems beyond the sniping of naysayers.

First, anyone who pays attention to Jamaica's athletics will appreciate the strong historic foundation upon which the sport is built and the quality of the antecedents from which today's stars spring. There can be few places in the world, if any, where the sport has the breadth of organisation and participation at school, and is as intensely followed at that level, as in Jamaica.

But malevolent critics of Jamaica aside, it is fact that in the world of professional athletics some participants use banned performance-enhancing drugs to gain advantage. Jamaican athletes may be among them. The evidence, up to now, suggests they are few.

Athletes and athletics institutions, however, have to ensure that the problem, insofar as it exists, does not worsen so as to protect the integrity of the unique brand in which all of us are heavily invested and which adds cachet to the global sport.

In this process we can't plead naivety. Which is why - even as we await fuller ventilation of the issues - we are concerned at the apparent laxity with which some of our top athletes, and their support systems, seem to manage their affairs.

flabbergasted

We are flabbergasted, for instance, to hear from Asafa Powell's agent, that he had not done sufficient "due diligence" on the trainer who was employed to help the athlete overcome injuries and who may have provided the banned substance which Powell says he did not knowingly ingest.

We are surprised, too, at the reported distance in the relationship between the trainer brought in to help Asafa Powell overcome injuries and his long-time club and coach. We expected a close working relationship and that the athlete would look to his long-time club and coach for advice and direction.

The issue of what athletes can and cannot consume can be a minefield which they need help to manoeuvre. At the elite level, we expect that help to come from managers, agents and coaches, and domestic associations.

In the wake of developments, there is obviously need for robust discussions and new systems that work, in the interest of athletes, even as they isolate the cheats.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.