If Veronica Campbell Brown is using a performance-enhancing drug, then it is not working because she is running slower than ever. This year, VCB has not run faster than 11-flat for the 100 metres, and she has not dropped below 22-flat for a long time. The woman is not more muscular than normal, and her voice has not gone down an octave — as is customary for women alleged to be taking substances. Physically, she shows no signs of performance-enhancing drugs.

If VCB took performance-enhancing drugs, then she would be running 10.6 for 100 metres, and 21.5 for 200 metres, and 49 seconds for 400 metres. An athlete of her calibre would not be struggling to run 11-flat in a 100-metre sprint, as she did recently in Jamaica. Since VCB’s times show no evidence of performance-enhancing drugs, then what is going on?

First, I do not know the athlete, have never met her, and have no bias for or against her. However, I, like other Jamaicans, am shocked at the news that diuretics were found in her system. Diuretics are not performance-enhancing drugs. In fact, they mask performance- enhancing drugs. Thus, the anti-doping czars have concluded that if an athlete has diuretics in his/her system, then the person had to have been taking performance-enhancing drugs. They have, therefore, elevated diuretics to the level of performance-enhancing drugs. That is a methodological fallacy. However, one sees how this protocol came about. In the past, athletes who took performance-enhancing drugs also took the masking agent to hide it. But this is not the past, this is the present.

The rush to judgment and the belief that an athlete is guilty until he/she proves his/her innocence turn jurisprudence on its head. If an athlete misses a drug test, it is counted as failing a test. If an athlete runs too fast, some conclude that the athlete cannot be clean. A number of athletes from the 1980s have concluded that since they took performance-enhancing drugs and never ran as fast as some athletes today, then today’s athletes must be dirty. They forget that tracks are faster, athletes are physically bigger and stronger, running spikes are better, and coaching techniques have improved over time.

What can modern-day athletes do to protect themselves. First, be careful of everything ingested, including water. Never eat or drink anything about which you are not sure, and never leave any drink or food out of your sight. Be careful of your friends and those around you. Maybe an athlete should take and keep a sample of his/her urine each and every day. Date the samples, and keep them in a safe, secure refrigerator. At the end of every month, except February, the athlete should have 30 or 31 samples. Thus, if the athlete fails a drug test, he/she can go back over the collection and discover exactly when the substance entered his/her system.

Furthermore, the athlete should keep a journal of everything he/she eats or drinks. This would be a diary which could be consulted if needed. The athlete could even use a special smart phone to film each meal or each drink. However, how far can this go? As far as you want to take it.

In conclusion, VCB is one case where a diuretic does not hide performance-enhancing drugs, because if she were on drugs, there is not a woman who could run with her.

Professor Trevor Hall is an all-American triple jumper and coach of Olympic gold medallist Paul Ereng (1988, 800-metres for Kenya). He is a former volunteer coach at Manchester High School and is presently a consultant in education, Portuguese cultures and sports. lingua111@hotmail.com