RECENT reports by the International Testing Agency (ITA) suggest the possible reinstatement of Justin Brownlee sooner than later.
The ITA recently reported cases of three lacrosse players accepting separate three-month periods of ineligibility for testing positive for prohibited substances after a competition.
READ SBP hoping for a retroactive three-month ban on Justin Brownlee
The ITA was the same organization which collected the sample of Brownlee after the Asian Games which yielded a positive result last October.
In the cases of thelacrosse players, Austin Staats, Oakley Thomas, and James Alexander Burleson-Porras were given three-month sanctions after an adverse analytical finding (AAF) at the World Lacrosse Men’s Championships in San Diego, California on July 1.
The three-month sanction began last September 6, the date of notification of the AAF, and ended on December 5 or a month before the ITA reported the cases in its website.
The athletes’ sanctions were actually lowered to three months since it was determined that the prohibited substance was taken out-of-competition and unrelated to sports performance. The lowering of the period of sanction can be done as expressly indicated in the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code.
The ITA said one of the substances taken by Staats and Thomas was Carboxy-THC, the same banned subatance that was found in Brownlee’s positive test at the Asian Games.
In Brownlee’s case, the Gilas naturalized player was tested on October 7, and was notified of the AAF on October 12, based on the ITA website.
In the aftermath of the positive test, the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) said the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) and Brownlee’s camp looked into the prescription drugs that Brownlee used when he was recovering from surgery to remove bone spurs before the Asian Games to prove that it was not related to enhancing performance.
Brownlee was actually facing a two-year suspension, but it could be lowered to three months if proven that the banned substance was taken out-of-competition and unrelated to sports performance.
Three months after the notification of Brownlee’s positive test, there has been no official word on Brownlee’s sanction.
Still, the SBP appears confident that Brownlee will soon be good to play that Gilas head coach Tim Cone has included the naturalized player in the 12-man roster that will see action in multiple Fiba windows.
“Their decision, we are hoping to come down, sometime this week that will hopefully free him up for the window,” said Cone on Monday.
Is Brownlee in the same boat as the lacrosse players?
We'll find out soon.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
