Embattled Jamaican sprinter Veronica Campbell-Brown’s manager emphatically denied yesterday that the twice Olym-pic 200 metres gold medallist was a drugs cheat.
“That she should now be accused of infringing on anti-doping rules is a shock to her,” Claude Bryan said after the Jamaican Athletics Admini-strative Association (JAAA) provisionally suspended the world champion following a positive test for a banned diuretic last month.
“Veronica is not a cheat, she has, via hard work and dedi-cation, accomplished a record on the track which is absolutely remarkable.
“Her faith which rest not in device or creed will see her through this dark period.”
The JAAA said the Carib-bean island’s most successful female athlete had volun-tarily withdrawn from com-petition pending a hearing, adding that she would “vigo-rously pursue the clearing of her name”.
The 31-year-old Campbell-Brown, the first Jamaican athlete to win a global 100 metres title, tested positive for a diuretic, which can be used to mask the use of perfor-mance-enhancing drugs, at the International Invitational World Challenge on May 4.