Barbadian sports have never had any issues with doping. Until now.
It’s safe to say that the local sporting arena currently has itself a real drug problem after seeing a very disturbing spike in adverse analytical findings over the last ten years.
Just this year alone the National Anti-Doping Commission has reported at least six anti-doping rule violations – a record number for Barbados in any 12-month span.
This comes against the background that young sprinter Levi Cadogan faces a possible two-year ban after reportedly testing positive for the banned diuretic and masking agent furosemide.
And his is only one of three new adverse analytical findings.
In this SUNDAY SUN feature sports writer Justin Marville details some of the other high-profiled anti-doping incidents to mar the Bajan sporting landscape.
Ivorn McKnee
SPORT: Weightlifting
YEAR: 2010
VIOLATION: The 2008 Sports Personality of the Year, McKnee returned a positive test for the anabolic steroid stanozolol after receiving an out-of-competition test here at home.
Both his A- and B-samples tested positive for stanozolol, the same substance that led to Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson being stripped of his 100 metres gold medal from the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.
OUTCOME: The then 29-year-old was hit with a four-year ban from the sport in July of 2010.
A two-time Commonwealth senior champ, McKnee only served three years of that suspension, having returned in 2013 after several other international weightlifters also had their bans reduced.
Since returning to the competitive stage, McKnee represented Barbados at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Barry Forde
SPORT: Cycling
YEAR: 2005, 2010
VIOLATION: Undoubtedly the greatest Bajan track sprinter of his generation, Forde actually tested positive for ephedrine in 2003 at the Pan Am Games but only received a warning after explaining it was due to a cold medicine.
Forde then returned exceedingly high levels of testosterone in 2005 and then failed a urine test for recombinant erythropoietin (EPO) in 2010 upon his return to the sport.
OUTCOME: Forde served a two-year suspension for his positive testosterone test in 2005 and then faced a lifetime ban from cycling after testing positive for EPO.
He ultimately decided to quit the sport on his own terms, having officially retired from cycling in 2011 instead of serving that career-ending suspension.
Martinas Durrant
SPORT: Bodybuilding
YEAR: 2009
VIOLATION: Durrant tested positive for both the banned diuretic acetazolamide and an anabolic androgenic steroid, mesterolone metabolite in Grenada after capturing the light heavyweight and overall crown at the Central American and Caribbean Championships.
OUTCOME: The onetime Barbados champ served a two-year ban, having waived his right for a B-sample. Cleared to return in 2011, Durrant finally came back to bodybuilding in 2017 following an eight-year hiatus from the sport.
Roderick Waterman
SPORT: Bodybuilding
YEAR: 2010
VIOLATION: Waterman’s urine sample from the Mr Bridgetown competition returned the banned anabolic steroids stanozolol, bolderone, clenbuterol and mesterolone metabolite.
He also had high levels of testosterone, showing a estosterone/epitestosterone ratio of 18:6.
OUTCOME: Waterman served a two-year ban as a first-time offender. He returned to the stage in 2016 to win Mr Bridgetown.
Darren Matthews
SPORT: Cycling
YEAR: 2015
VIOLATION: The then 25-year-old endurance rider tested positive for the anabolic steroid clenbuterol and a banned stimulant methylphenidate while showing abnormally high levels of testosterone.
Riding for Team Cocos, Matthews apparently returned an adverse analytical finding from an A-sample taken at the Tour of Guyana.
He then returned another positive result when tested out-of-competition at home here in Barbados.
OUTCOME: Matthews was officially served a four-year ban in 2016 as a first-time offender for failing those two separate drug tests after not requesting a B-sample.
A former national road race champ and Pan Am Championships medallist, Matthews was one of the first local athletes to be suspended under the new World Anti-Doping Code that came into effect in 2015. He has since retired from the sport. (JM)