Sports medicine expert and former Jamaica Anti-Doping Control officer (JADCO) Dr Paul Wright says it will be tough for national squash champion Julian Morrison to prove his innocence after receiving a provisional doping suspension recently.

It was revealed on Wednesday that Morrison was suspended on February 21, 2024 after traces of boldenone, a banned anabolic agent, was found during an out of competition test on January 18, 2024.

Morrison’s legal representatives, Dr Emir Crowne and Matthew Gayle, said in a press release that the substance entered his system through contamination and “therefore keen to clear his name and will seek to expedite any process or mechanism to facilitate such vindication.”

The Jamaica Observer made several calls to JADCO including to Chairperson Debby Ann Brown-Salmon but did not receive a response.

Although it’s not yet known how the banned substance entered his system, Wright says that Morrison’s contamination claim is likely as some supplements contain boldenone. However, he says it may not support his case.

“The effect of boldenone is to increase muscle mass and stamina,” Wright told the Jamaica Observer. “Athletes have discovered that this drugs work and have used it to increase muscle mass and stamina. Especially in a game like squash, where you’re able to run nonstop for long periods of time, people will use a drug in order to have an edge over the other competitors.

“What WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) found is that all the samples test for anabolic steroids, six per cent of these samples contain boldenone and every one of the samples that contain the boldenone were contaminants of supplements.”

Wright says a thorough examination of supplements should be done before taking because it increases the risk of testing for a banned substance.

“Supplements that contain boldenone do not put on the label that boldenone is there. They sell the drug as ‘increasing muscle mass, increasing stamina and makes you stronger’, but on the label boldenone is not involved in it. People who buy supplements are warned over and over again, especially by WADA and JADCO, if you’re going to take a supplement, there’s a lab by UWI [University of The West Indies] that, for a fee, will examine the supplement and if it contains any contaminants.

“The key is if you’re buying a supplement for a special effect and the effect works, most likely a banned substance is inside of it and therefore if you’re taking a supplement, get it tested.”

Although the complete sanction or appeal process hasn’t been revealed, Wright says Morrison’s chances of a successful appeal are slim.

“It’s extremely tough because the code is explicit about the use of supplements and the warning levels on supplements are tremendous. I remember one case I was involved in that went to the independent panel. The athlete was explaining the supplement they took for so and so but on the bottle, it was written ‘do not take this drug if you’re a competitive athlete’, so there are some supplements that warn you,” he said.

“Maybe, and this is 90 per cent, that this poor guy didn’t know this supplement contained a banned substance but he knew that supplements that it must be approved by an accredited lab because of the danger of contamination.”

A recent case involving boldenone was former world number one doubles tennis player Robert Farah in 2020. The Colombian, however, escaped a ban after the International Tennis Federation investigation accepted his claim that he had unintentionally consumed it from contaminated beef prepared by his mother.