Cian O'Connor's explanation for a positive drugs test on his Olympic gold medal ride, Waterford Crystal, has been questioned by a senior International Equestrian Federation (FEI) official, write Grania Willis, Equestrian Correspondent, and Carl O'Brien
Dr Frits Sluyter, head of the federation's veterinary department, told The Irish Times yesterday he had yet to see a case of an equine sedative showing up five weeks after it had been administered.
He said it would be "unprecedented" for such a substance to still show up in tests unless it had either been administered closer to competition or if a drug meant for human use had been administered.
The use of drugs from the human field is considered a "serious infringement" by the FEI.
Dr Sluyter responded to O'Connor's claims that only "minute" traces of a mild sedative were found in the samples from Waterford Crystal and the mare, ABC Landliebe, which tested positive at the Italian Nations Cup fixture in Rome last May.
He said the testing laboratory in Paris did not reveal the concentration of a banned substance unless there was a threshold level established for that particular drug. Under FEI regulations there was a zero tolerance policy on sedatives.
"Sedatives are prohibited in any concentration," Dr Sluyter said yesterday from the FEI's headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. "Any level is an offence."
O'Connor's vet, Mr James Sheeran, last night said the substance administered to the horses was "not specifically a human drug".
"All the drugs that are used in horses are used in humans too. They are shared between the two communities," he said.
Mr Sheeran said he had been told that "extremely low" traces of a mild sedative were found and went on to question the FEI official's authority to comment on details of the drug-testing process.
"Well, it has remained in the [horse's] system for that length of time, 35 days, and he is not a pharmacologist, he's a vet. It's not him who is doing the testing."
O'Connor was not available for comment last night, but he has insisted he did not cheat and has said that Waterford Crystal and ABC Landliebe received a sedative for injuries well over a month before taking part in any competition.
Dr Sluyter said that following the outcome of the tests at Rome and Athens, he would be "surprised" if an equine sedative had been administered to the horses five weeks before the competitions.
"If it was an equine product, there is no precedent for that [traces remaining], but there are two options. These may not be equine drugs or else it was administered more recently than that. With normal equine sedatives it should not be a problem if they are used a month before the competition."
However, he said, no conclusions should be drawn at least until the B sample from Waterford Crystal has been tested. This process is expected to take at least three weeks.
Dr Sluyter also confirmed yesterday that a national equestrian federation would not be given any information on concentration levels of substances for which there was zero tolerance.
The FEI has detailed information on the long-term effect of drugs registered for equine use and the traceability of such drugs. However, for substances not designed or registered for use on horses, information on detection time and how long the drug would have an effect on the horse is not so readily available.
Mr Sheeran, who treated both Waterford Crystal and top speed horse ABC Landliebe, claimed only "traces" of a sedative were found in the samples from both horses.
"The levels given are so small", he said. "Why can't they come out and say these levels are consistent with levels that would have been given out of competition?" Mr Sheeran is blaming the positive results on hyper-sensitive scanning techniques.
Neither the international governing body nor the national federation have made any statement about concentration levels in the samples.