Swimming: Bray ban would spell end of career

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Trent Bray faces a four-year ban, and the end of his international swimming career, if found guilty of taking an illegal drug.

The double Olympian is facing a charge of using the anabolic androgenic steroid nandrolone.

Since 1997, when testing for the drug was stepped up in the wake of the drug-soaked Chinese swimming surge, five swimmers have tested positive for nandrolone. All five have been banned for four years.

Fina rules say any swimmer returning a positive test to an anabolic agent, diuretic or masking agent will be suspended for a minimum of four years for a first offence. A second offence carries a lifetime ban.

In October 1997 a Brazilian swimmer tested positive to nandrolone and was banned for four years, as were two of his countrymen who returned positives to the same substance a month later.

Two swimmers at last year's Fina marathon World Cup also tested positive to nandrolone and got the same ban.

Unlike Bray, all previous nandrolone cases have been "in-competition" tests.

Bray, aged 26, is due to appear before a Swimming New Zealand-appointed tribunal in the next few days to answer a case brought against him following a positive out-of-competition drugs test.

Bray's lawyer, Peter Thorp, yesterday expressed concern that Swimming New Zealand president Phil Pritchard had said association rules required the imposition of a penalty even when the athlete concerned had no idea that he had consumed a banned substance.

"It is a basic principle of our law that you can't be punished for something you neither know or ought to have known you have done," said Thorp. "If rules require otherwise, in my view they would be invalid and struck down by the court."

Fina rule 9.1.5 is very clear on that subject. It states: "... the finding in a competitor's body tissue or fluids of a prohibited substance shall constitute an offence regardless of whether the competitor can establish that he or she did not knowingly use the prohibited substance ..."

Thorp also pointed to a report from the UK Sports Council as recently as January 18 that expressed concerns that a number of athletes had apparently unwittingly ingested banned substances because of inadequate or incorrectly labelled dietary supplements or herbal remedies.

Thorp said some reported comments risked prejudicing a fair hearing for Bray.

"If people must comment meanwhile, I suggest that they express their confidence in his innocence and not presume his guilt."

Bray is expected to appear before the tribunal later this week, although Thorp said they might request a delay if they did not have all their evidence ready.

Other banned substances including ephedrine, pseudoephedrine and caffeine carry only a three-month suspension for a first offence and from three months to two years for a second offence.

New Zealand Sports Drug Agency chief Graeme Steel said yesterday while the time taken for the Sydney laboratory to test Bray's sample was "longer than normal" it was within the guidelines.

Bray was tested on November 22, but the sample was not tested until after Christmas.

"They were particularly busy at that time," said Steel. "But a delay like that does not alter samples. They are often frozen as B samples and sometimes not tested until months later."

Steel said the tests had been conducted in accordance with NZDA regulations. Bray was present when his B sample was tested.