In August 2023 the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), on behalf of World Athletics, reported an anti-doping rule violation against the Surname Athlete Issamade Asinga after his A and B samples tested positive for the prohibited substance GW 1516.
Following notification a provisional suspension was ordered. The Athlete filed a statement in his defence and was heard for the World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal.
The Athlete accepted the test results, denied the intentional use of the substance and requested for a reduced sanction. He asserted with evidence and expert witnesses that a contaminated product had caused the positive test results.
In August 2023 the Athlete had sent open and sealed containers of a supplement for analysis to the Salt Lake City Laboratory. However analysis revealed no prohibited substances in this supplement.
Thereupon in September 2023 the Athlete sent 8 other products for analysis. In December 2023 the Salt Lake City Laboratory reported the presence of GW1516 in two unsealed containers of the supplement Gatorade Recovery Gummies.
The AIU contended that the Athlete failed to explain how the prohibited substance had entered his system. The AIU did not rule out deliberate adulteration of the product in the absence of a factory-sealed version of the Gatorade Recovery Gummies with the same lot number tested.
Neither did the AIU accept that unclean equipment or contaminated raw ingredients were the source of the positive test. Moreover the AIU established that two different lot numbers in question in this case had been applied for one batch of Gatorade Recovery Gummies in September 2022.
The Panel assessed and addressed the evidence of the Parties and their expert witnesses and determines that:
- The presence of a prohibited substance has been established in the Athlete's sample and accordingly he committed an anti-doping rule violation.
- The only batch of Gatorade Recovery Gummies with two different lot numbers in question were produced as part of one batch and sealed on the same day on production line 1 on 21 September 2021.
- There is inconsistency between the test results of the unsealed containers provided the Athlete with the testing results of the other sealed containers.
- The hypothesis that contamination was caused by the presence of GW1516 in a raw ingredient of the Gatorade Recovery Gummies is very unlikely.
- Unexplained is how traces of GW1516 could have entered the interior of the Gatorade Recovery Gummies tested by the Salt Lake City Laboratory.
- The Athlete did not succeed in establishing that the anti-doping rule violation was not intentional.
Therefore the Panel decides on 17 May 2024 to impose a 4 year period of ineligibility on the Athlete, starting on the date of the provisional suspension, i.e. on 9 August 2023.
