TWO-AND-A-HALF weeks before the 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Daegu, South Korea and a week before the Jamaica team is set to gather at the pre-Championships camp in Gyeonasan, the Jamaican track and field fraternity has been rocked by news of another failed drug test.

News emerged yesterday that a male athlete who was expected to be named in the Jamaican team next week for the nine-day meet tested positive for a banned substance.

Reports reaching the Observer are that the athlete returned the test during the JAAA/Supreme Ventures National Senior Championships in late June but was only this past Monday notified of the results of the ‘A’ sample.

When contacted last night, a senior executive of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) was hearing the news for the first time and told the Observer they were hurrying to get to a meeting of the executive council to continue planning for the World Championships.

Executive Director of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCo), Dr Patrece Charles-Freeman, in the meantime, said she could not speak to the issue.

“I have no comment on the matter. There is no way JADCo can comment at this time,” Freeman said.

If the incident were confirmed it would be the third straight global track and field championships that the cloud of failed drug tests would be hanging over the Jamaican team.

In 2008 just before the Beijing Olympics, sprinter Julien Dunkley tested positive and was pulled from the team and two years ago, five athletes returned positive tests after consuming a sport drink during Trials.

The five — Yohan Blake, Allodin Fothergill, Sheri-Ann Brooks, Marvin Anderson and Lanceford Spence — were all banned for three months.

Also in 2009, 200m specialist and 2001 World Championships silver medallist Christopher Williams returned a positive finding at a meet in Europe and was banned for two years.