WORD that Jamaican sprinter, Mr Steve Mullings, the third fastest man over 100 metres this year, has tested positive for a banned substance is a huge blow even as Jamaica prepares to take centre stage at the 13th IAAF World Athletics Championships later this month in Daegu, South Korea.

Presumably, the bad news will not prove too much of a morale damper for the Jamaican team, which is to be named on Monday.

After all, our competitors have recovered well from similar news in the build-up to major championships in the past. Readers will recall that approaching the 2008 Beijing Olympics, sprinter Mr Julien Dunkley tested positive and a year later, prior to the Berlin World Championships, five athletes — Messrs Yohan Blake, Allodin Fothergill, Marvin Anderson, Lanceford Spence and Miss Sheri-Ann Brooks were banned for three months after consuming a sport drink with prohibited ingredients.

We remember with pride that our athletes moved on to dominate both those major world events.

But that’s little consolation for the damage to an individual athletic career and to our reputation as a track and field country every time there is an adverse finding such as this one against Mr Mullings, who incidentally, has previously infringed and was banned from competition.

And while this newspaper agrees that this latest unfortunate episode confirms the professionalism and impartiality of the local drug testing agency, the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCo), we have to ask why it took so long for the ‘A’ sample test result to be made known to the athlete.

As we understand it, the test was done during the National Senior Championships in late June, but Mr Mullings was only informed this past Monday of the adverse result. While Mr Mullings is entitled to have the ‘B’ sample tested before the result is confirmed, he now seems certain to miss the trip to Korea.

Revelation of Mr Mullings’ predicament came just ahead of an announcement from track and field’s governing body, the IAAF, that all athletes in Daegu will be blood-tested during the championships.

We are told that this will be the first time “that a heterogeneous population of nearly 2,000 elite athletes competing at a major sporting event will be blood-tested under the same optimal condition, within the same time period”.

Drug-testing authorities have repeatedly made it clear that it is the responsibility first and foremost of sports competitors to ensure that their bodies are free from banned substances. For that reason, there is an elaborate list of such substances routinely made available to athletes, their coaches and their handlers.

As we have done before in this space, this newspaper urges that all stakeholders exercise the greatest care in abiding by the rules regarding banned substances.

There is simply too much at stake. Not just in terms of an athlete’s career, but also for the good name

of Jamaica. And it is certainly no consolation that we have a plethora of world-class 100-metre men.