President of the Racers Track Club, Glen Mills, speaking at a press conference hosted by the club at Eden Gardens on Lady Musgrave Road, St Andrew, yesterday. At right is the club's marketing and communications officer Carole Beckford. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

Racers Track Club is considering legal action against the manufacturers of a supplement which contained the stimulant that caused two of their athletes to be banned for three months after their test samples returned adverse analytical findings. The testing was done during the National Championships held in June this year to select the team to the World Championships in Athletics in Berlin, Germany.

Club president Glen Mills revealed this development during a press conference held yesterday at Eden Gardens on Lady Musgrave Road in St Andrew. The press conference was called so the club could tell their side of the story about how the athletes' samples came to produce the adverse findings.

Error in judgement

Mills claimed that the list of contents on the supplement, Muscle Speed, that primarily contains vitamins B, E, and C, did not mention that it contained 4-methyl-2-hexanamine, a compound that resembles tuaminoheptane, a stimulant that is on the World Anti-Doping Agency's banned list. "The athletes made an error in judgement in trusting that the product was WADA compliant," he said.

"The literature on the substance at the time of purchase was crystal clear in bold writing that it was WADA and NCAA compliant," Mills continued, adding that when news of the adverse findings became public, the manufacturers changed the wording on the website used to peddle the supplement. "We are in the process of securing the services of a law firm in the United States to proceed on the matter," he added.

Carole Beckford, the marketing and communications officer at Racers, who also addressed the conference, said they were surprised about the adverse findings. Various checks had been conducted prior to the athletes taking the supplements and the offending stimulant was not on any of the various WADA lists. Nor was it listed as an ingredient of Muscle Speed.

Muscle Speed tablets, as prescribed by the website, are to be taken about an hour before competition or training so the athlete can "unleash unprecedented power and speed".

But, according to Dr Peter Ruddock from the Department of Chemistry at the University of the West Indies, who also addressed journalists at the conference, the amount of 4-methyl-2-hexanamine that was in each tablet was so minute it would have little or no effect on an athlete's performance. The compound was so ineffective it was once being used in nasal decongestants but was eventually pulled from the market. He said one would need 60 bottles of Muscle Speed to get one teaspoonful of the compound, adding that a 1944 research paper showed that it was not a very good stimulant. He also explained that it would be no good as a masking agent as it is so easy to detect.

Defending the athletes - Yohan Blake and Marvin Anderson - Beckford said there was no confession of guilt from them at the Jamaica Anti-Doping Appeals Tribunal held earlier this month. She explained that they accepted the adverse findings because there was no way to contest them.

Negative fallout

Mills revealed that the athletes were having a hard time dealing with the negative fallout from the situation. "It has been a tremendous blow," Mills said. "It's a good thing we have good support. We have a strong faith in God. They have been able to deal with the pressure so far."

He said what the situation had exposed some areas of weakness in their organisation which they will address by the setting up of a medical panel which will, among other things, have to approve all supplements before they are ingested by the athletes.

According to him, it's not as if the athletes under his care need to cheat to win.

"In 40 years of working in track and field, I have neither encouraged nor supported the use of banned substances to support athletic performances. I firmly believe in the principles of honesty and hard work as the tools of development of one's God-given talent," he said. "I am also a firm believer in my ability, honesty and expertise as a coach to develop any talent in any area of the world in the area of sprinting. I need no illegal help."