Julian Morrison handed two-year ban; Crowne satisfied with ruling
NATIONAL squash player Julian Morrison has been given a two-year suspension following an anti-doping rule violation — a ruling that leading sports attorney Dr Emir Crowne says he is satisfied with following the decision by the Independent Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel on Wednesday.
The panel of Catherine Minto, Dr Donovan Calder and Dean Martin ruled that while Morrison did not ingest the banned substance Boldenone intentionally, he failed to provide solid evidence of how it entered his system.
Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO), which presented the case against the two-time national champion and made submissions for a four-year ban, was represented by Ian Wilkinson and Lenroy Stewart.
Crowne, who was joined on Morrison’s defence by Matthew Gayle and Sayeed Bernard, argued that the presence of Boldenone in his system was due to the consumption of contaminated meat.
Crowne admitted that given the difficulties in proving Morrison’s innocence, the two-year suspension can be seen as a positive, pointing out that his team did well to convince the panel that the ingestion of the illicit substance was not intentional.
“I’m pleased with the decision because contaminated meat cases are notoriously difficult to defend against and to litigate because one essentially has to track down the source of the contaminated meat from January 2024,” Crowne told the
Jamaica Observer.
He continued: “I’m not sure anybody could track down the meat that they ate in January of last year and have it tested unless you have considerable resources at your disposal.”
“The panel said, ‘Look, we don’t have enough evidence to say that Mr Morrison intentionally consumed the Boldenone or that he’s a cheater,’ and so the panel handed down a two-year ban on that basis,” said Dr Crowne.
Morrison tested positive for Boldenone during an out-of-competition test on January 18, 2024.
His ban will end on February 21, 2026 and Crowne noted that given the resources at the athlete’s disposal, this is a great outcome for him and it preserves his chances of competing in the Olympics in 2028.
