WADA is welcome – Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
By Dania Bogle
WORLD and Olympic Games 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has issued a challenge to the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) that they are welcome to come to Jamaica and examine its testing procedures at any time.
“If WADA wants to come, the airport is open so they can come freely and go freely,” Fraser-Pryce said.
The reigning International Associations of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Diamond League 100m and 200m champion, was speaking in the wake of recent positive drugs tests by a number of Jamaican athletes, an interview in the UK’s Daily Telegraph this week with former Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) Executive Director Renee Anne Shirley that the body had never conducted a blood test and a separate article written by Miss Shirley in August and published in Sports Illustrated questioning the credibility of the anti-doping body.
Fraser-Pryce, who herself received a six month ban from the IAAF in 2010 after testing positive for a narcotic painkiller, said she believes that most Jamaican athletes are clean.
“…Apart from sometimes we have athletes who are just naïve in the sense that they believe that things are clean and they take it and they fall victim to positive tests. But I believe that’s something that our federation can improve on and educate our athletes,” she said.
Fraser-Pryce’s former team mates at the MVP Track and Field Club also tested positive at the Jamaica national championships in June and are awaiting hearings early in 2014.
Meanwhile, both Simpson and Powell have parted ways with the Stephen Francis-coached MVP after the seasoned coach told them they would have to part ways with their agent Paul Doyle or leave the club.