Against the backdrop of an active whereabouts case involving Jamaica’s most successful sprint hurdler, chairperson of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO), Debby Ann Brown Salmon, says clean sport is not the agency’s burden alone to carry.
“Clean sport is a national responsibility, not a JADCO responsibility,” Salmon told The Gleaner yesterday.
Salmon confirmed that the whereabouts case involving Olympic and World Champion hurdler Omar McLeod remains ongoing, but declined to divulge details.
Quizzed as to whether she could comment on Omar McLeod’s whereabouts matter, Brown Salmon told The Gleaner: “I am not able to say because, as you know, it’s an active case and I cannot comment.”
The confirmation came twelve days after The Gleaner first broke news that McLeod had been notified of a whereabouts Anti-Doping Rule Violation.
McLeod, who won gold medals at the 2016 Olympics, the 2017 World Championships, and the 2016 World Indoor Championships, faces the possibility of a two-year ban over the alleged violation.
He is understood to have missed one test, in addition to two filing failures, within a 12-month period between 2025 and 2026. McLeod has remained silent on the matter.
Pressed on how JADCO balances enforcement with athlete education, Brown Salmon pushed back on the characterisation of the agency as a policing body.
“We are signatories to the code, to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code, and all we do is try to protect our athletes by enforcing the rules, by making sure that our athletes are educated,” she told The Gleaner.
She noted that WADA published its updated prohibited list last week and that JADCO is preparing to post it to its own website.
That same philosophy was on display yesterday morning, as Salmon and her team hosted Cayman Islands Sports Minister Isaac Rankine, who is leading efforts to establish an independent National Anti-Doping Organization (NADO) for his territory.
Under WADA rules, athletes who form part of a registered testing pool are required to submit detailed whereabouts information on a quarterly basis, including their home address, contact details, overnight accommodation, regular activities and competition schedules.
They also need to provide a daily one-hour window when they must be available for testing out of competition.
kayon.raynor@rjrgleaner.com
