Jamaica’s Shanoya Douglas could be retroactively awarded the silver medal from the women’s 200m at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships held in Lima, Peru, in August 2024 after it was announced on Monday that the gold medallist Adaejah Hodge of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) had tested positive for two banned substances at the event.

Douglas had finished third in the race on August 20, 2024 behind Hodge, who took the gold medal, and Australia’s Torrie Lewis, who was second, with another Australian, Jessica Milat, fourth.

Efforts by the Jamaica Observer to reach representatives of Douglas and the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association proved fruitless.

The Georgia, USA-based Hodge, who had won the Austin Sealey Award at the 2022 Carifta Games held in Kingston, Jamaica, as an Under-17 athlete, was also second in the women’s 100m behind Jamaica’s Alana Reid, with Kingston-based Barbadian Kishawna Niles taking third and Great Britain’s Nia Wedderburn-Goodison placing fourth.

A report on the Athletics Integrity Unit’s (AIU) website on Monday said the University of Georgia freshman had served an unannounced two-year ban after she returned “Adverse Analytical Findings for GW501516 sulfone and GW501516 sulfoxide, which are Metabolites of GW501516 (“the AAF”), a Non-Specified substance, prohibited at all times”.

The report said the athlete was notified in person “on 22 November 2024…including of potential Anti-Doping Rule Violations (“ADRVs”) pursuant to Rule 2.1 and Rule 2.2 of the 2024 World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules (“ADR”) and an immediate Provisional Suspension. The Athlete immediately attended an interview with AIU representatives and provided an explanation for the AAF”.

The report said she had cooperated and between November 2024 and January 2025 had met with the AIU where she provided additional information after which both parties entered into a case resolution agreement, which is part of the process in which she acknowledged committing the breach of the anti-doping rules and it was agreed that “the Athlete’s explanation establishes (on the balance of probabilities) that she ingested GW501516 unknowingly; the Parties agree that the Athlete’s ADRVs were not intentional”.

As a result of her cooperation, the release said, “The Parties agree that a period of 7 months of the otherwise applicable period of Ineligibility in the Athlete’s case shall be suspended for Substantial Assistance in accordance with Rule 10.7.1 ADR. The Athlete therefore became eligible from and including 28 January 2026.”

Her ban had started on August 27 and, as a consequence, all her results from then and the time of her suspension were abandoned.

Hodge had represented the BVI at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, and also the Paris, Olympic Games earlier in 2024.

On Saturday, she won the women’s 200m at the NCAA Division 1 Indoor Track and Field Championships held in Arkansas.

British Virgin Islands sprinter Adaejah Hodge served a two-year ban after testing positive for a banned substance in 2024. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)