CAMPBELL-BROWN: DRUG TESTING GOES WITH THE TERRITORY

DESPITE complaints by many global sports stars and some federations about the invasiveness of the latest whereabouts rule of World Anti-doping Agency (WADA), Jamaica's current most successful female athlete Veronica Campbell-Brown is unperturbed.Campbell-Brown, who has amassed 10 global medals - five in the Olympics and five at the World Championship level - says dope-testing comes with the territory of her job.
"Even If I don't agree, there's nothing I can do, I just have to comply," Campbell told the Observer.
Only Merlene Ottey with 22 global medals - eight at the Olympics and 14 in the World Championships - has won more silverware than Campbell-Brown.
The sprinter, who will celebrate her 27th birthday on May 15, was recently in Jamaica as part of the IAAF's 'Day in the Life' programme, which involved eight journalists from France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain and the Bahamas getting a rare glimpse into the athlete's background and upbringing.
The stringent WADA rules stipulate that professional athletes in most sports including track and field and football, give three months' notice of their location for one hour each day - seven days a week - between 6:00 am and 11:00 pm, to undergo out-of-competition drug testing. The information is registered online and can be updated by e-mail or text message.
"I give my one-hour in the mornings before I go to training," explained Campbell-Brown, who lives in Claremont, Florida.
"So whenever I'm being drug-tested it's before I go on the track, so the testers normally come to my home in that one-hour window early in the morning," added the Lance Brauman-coached sprinter.
Campbell-Brown, who has two silver medals from the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games, disclosed that she had been tested six times prior to sustaining a toe injury, which kept her out of action for four weeks up to May 30.
"At the beginning of the year, I had one-week where they came three times in a row, so I've been tested maybe six times (this year)," she said.
Her agent, Claude Bryan of On Track Management, told the Observer that his charge fully understands that doping control goes hand-in-hand with professional sport.
"Veronica understands also that if you put on your spikes, there are rules. You must understand that you will be tested (and) it may be blood test and we have no problem with that," Bryan said, indicating that athletes in track and field and other sports need to fall in line or find other professions.
Last month, the European Union faced increased calls to force WADA into softening its out-of-competition drug-testing rules following a report criticising the latter for alleged privacy violations.
The Associated Press reported that: "An independent EU advisory panel said that anti-doping controllers in the 27-nation EU must 'disregard' the WADA code when its rules contradict domestic law."
In march, FIFA president Joseph Blatter was strident in opposition to WADA's out-of-competition testing rules saying that federations were jointly combating doping, but this should not turn into a "witch hunt".

BY KAYON RAYNOR, Senior staff reporter raynork@jamaicaobserver.com
Friday, May 08, 2009
(Photo: Getty Images)