Turnbull case prompts an overhaul of rules

Ian O'Riordanreports how the Belfast athlete's successful challenge has forced the Irish Sports Council to revise their anti-doping procedures

The Irish Sports Council has been forced to overhaul its anti-doping rules and award costs in the case of Belfast athlete Gareth Turnbull, who was last year accused of a doping offence but subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing. It completes Turnbull's lengthy campaign for complete exoneration but also raises some significant questions about the Sports Council's existing anti-doping procedures.

Turnbull declined to elaborate on the full implications of yesterday's decision, which was announced at the Sports Council's anti-doping annual report for 2006. He didn't, he said, want to revisit any of the stressful or vitriolic feelings brought on by the case, while the exact costs involved, easily a six-figure sum, have yet to be agreed.

"I am happy that the Irish Sports Council rules changes announced today will provide the basis for us to get our costs in this case," he said, "and that it may help other Irish athletes in a similar position in the future."

The Sports Council were equally cautious about what they could say about the case, but for different reasons. Clearly some fault had been found in their existing procedures, including some aspects of how Turnbull's case was handled. He was informed last June that an out-of-competition test, taken the previous October, had shown irregular levels of testosterone, and therefore faced a two-year ban.

Turnbull launched a heavy defence, remortgaging his house in Loughborough and getting further financial backing from his father. Last October, a full year after the initial test, an independent disciplinary panel accepted that Turnbull's slightly elevated testosterone levels were brought about solely by natural cases, and thus cleared him of any wrongdoing.

John Treacy, chief executive of the Sports Council, admitted the outcome of the case had influenced the change in their anti-doping procedures: "There are always new challenges in anti-doping," he said, "and the outcome of the Gareth Turnbull case was a challenge.

"We made a determination that the athlete had a case to answer, and he successfully answered that case. However, they don't have a case for costs under the present rules, and in the interest of athlete fairness we have agreed to revise our rules, going forward, and that the athlete in the successful case can also be awarded costs."

The rule change involving cost still requires approval from the national governing bodies, but in the meantime the Sports Council will also be re-examining how they handle future testosterone cases.

"This area is quite a minefield," explained Dr Brendan Buckley, chairperson of the anti-doping committee.

"Since the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) took over the list of banned substances there have been modifications from year to year.

"As they dig deeper into difficult cases they are finding that some of the scientific evidence they hoped was there in fact wasn't. The issue of testosterone, and the influence of alcohol on levels, turned out to be quite poorly documented, and there was a surprising scientific deficit. That is something that will have to be addressed worldwide.

"But on the issue of costs, the rule has always been tricky, because there is always the risk someone will get off on a technicality. What we're trying to do now is deal with the issue of exonerated athletes getting their costs, if they're successful, but we don't get our costs if we're successful, and that's a unique distinction within Irish law."

The costs awarded to Turnbull will be finalised within the coming weeks and are estimated to be around €200,000. The Sports Council's overall legal fees for 2006 were €443,861, with a large chunk of that clearly going on the Turnbull case.

The other elements to yesterday's anti-doping report weren't nearly as controversial: there were 892 tests carried out in 2006, across 37 sports, with another 157 paid tests carried out on behalf of certain governing bodies. These proved expensive (€903,413) and with the legal fees, salaries and education costs included the overall anti-doping costs for 2006 amounted to a massive €1,623,700.

The question remains whether or not this proves value for money, with only two adverse findings actually recorded - the case of kick-boxer Carla Patten, who got a three-month suspension for failing to fill out a whereabouts form, and jockey Warren O'Connor, who got a one-year ban for stimulant use.

There are also some strange irregularities in the sports tested.

Athletics, for example, was subjected to 167 tests, 145 of which were out-of-competition, while the total number of tests carried out across Gaelic football and hurling was just 56, and only 20 out-of-competition - despite the clearly higher levels of participation.

Similarly, cycling underwent 103 tests, more than rugby and soccer combined, who had only 42 and 40 respectively. Anti-doping manager Una May said there were no plans to change the ratio of testing among sports, despite the whole operation now being carried out "in-house" having previously been out-sourced to the international agency IDTM.