Jamaican sprinter Veronica Campbell-Brown will avoid the standard two-year ban after testing positive for a reported banned diuretic in May, sources told the Times of London.
The report meshes well with previous remarks from the IAAF that Campbell-Brown’s case, which is ongoing, appears to involve a “lesser” offense, that she did not use the substance, reported to be Lasix (furosemide), to cheat, despite its ability to act as a masking agent for performance-enhancing drugs.
Campbell-Brown, a seven-time Olympic medalist and two-time 200-meter champion, is under a provisional suspension by Jamaica’s athletics federation, whose disciplinary panel is handling the case. A reduced ban from two years can vary. It can be as little as a public warning. She has not commented since her positive test was first reported June 14.
If Campbell-Brown receives a six-month suspension, it will draw comparisons to a ban given to fellow Jamaican Olympic champion sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in 2009. Fraser-Pryce tested positive for Oxycodone, but her ban was reduced to six months after her explanation that she took the banned painkiller to treath a toothache.
Jamaican Olympic medalist ran at London 2012 with breast cancer