Four Athletes Dropped from Pan Ams for Doping

(ATR)Three baseball athletes and one weightlifter are excluded from competition for the rest of Pan Am Games for doping violations.

Nelson Gómez of Puerto Rico, Mario Castillo of the Dominican Republic, Javier Angulo of Colombia and Cinthya Domínguez of Mexico have been removed from the athlete village in Toronto and will all face possible suspensions by the World Baseball Softball Confederation and the International Weightlifting Federation.

Gómez tested positive for the use of boldenone, an anabolic steroid that can be found in steroid tests up to five months after use. The discovered use of boldenone in Major League Baseball generally results in a 50-game suspension.

Gómez participated in the start of the Pan Am baseball tournament, notably hitting a solo home run that sparked two more consecutive home runs by teammates against the United States in a 10-9 win on the first day of the tournament.

Angulo also tested positive for an anabolic steroid called stanzolol, a drug that can be found in urine samples up to 10 days after a single oral dose. Castillo was found using a stimulant that currently has effects that are unknown due to lack of testing on humans.

Weightlifter Domínguez tested positive for oxandrolone, an anabolic steroid categorized as a schedule III controlled substance in the U.S. due to its risks for abuse.

PASO chief of the medical commission Eduardo de Rose says they are not alarmed by the amount of athletes found in violation of doping rules but are shocked there are so many within the first week of competition.

"The medical commission [of PASO] was surprised that we have so many cases in the beginning of the games, but the numbers will be more or less the same we have in every other games - perhaps five, perhaps 10 or 15," Eduardo de Rose says.

Eduardo de Rose says this could be due to the new WADA standards initiated at the beginning of this year that put in place specific standards for each sport as opposed to the games as a whole.

"We are working here under the new initiative of WADA. The controls are much harder than the controls we had in Guadalajara. We have intensified doping controls in blood, especially in using the athlete passport so we have more tools to detect an anti-doping violation than we had at the time of Guadalajara," he says.

PASO vice president Ivar Sisniega tells reporters PASO is taking all suspected violations very seriously and will inform the public as soon as a case concludes.

"PASO is very committed to keeping the games clean, to making sure the athletes have fair conditions and that we abide very closely to the WADA anti-doping code," Sisniega says.

The tests are being conducted by the WADA approved Montreal laboratory. Once the laboratory finds evidence of a doping violation they inform the athlete, the NOC of the athlete and the PASO executive board immediately. The athlete and the NOC then have 48 hours to provide evidence in their defense for an appeal of the violation.

PASO makes their final decision of suspending an athlete from the games after this 48 hour period has ended and all the evidence is provided. For this reason, PASO is so far unable to comment on swimmer Mauricio Fiol of Peru who announced at a press conference he has tested positive for violating the doping rules.

The 48-hour period for Fiol to appeal the violation ends Friday afternoon. Fiol announced during a press conference he was surprised by the information because he says he promotes fair play.

If Fiol is found guilty by PASO, he will be stripped of the silver medal he won in the men’s 200-meter butterfly. Canadian swimmers Zack Chetrat and Alec Page would then move up in the medal standings to take silver and bronze respectively.

A guilty conviction by PASO only means the athlete will be removed from the Pan Am games. Sisniega and Eduardo de Rose emphasized it is up to the international federation of the athletes in violation to determine future suspensions in their sport.

Written by Kevin Nutley

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