Jamaican commission rubbishes Pound's allegations

 Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCo) has rubbished a claim by International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Dick Pound that it is difficult to test Jamaican athletes because they are hard to find.

Following a marathon meeting of the board of JADCo on Monday, chairman Winston Davidson described Pound’s claims as “a vicious attack on a small country,” reports CMC.
“What Pound said was blatantly false. We knew it was spurious, but we spent the whole day trying to find evidence of it.

“We don’t think they would do this to America and other bigger countries. It is a vicious attack on a small country,” Davidson said.

Pound, who is also a former chief of the World Anti-Doping Agency, told Reuters Television on Saturday that Jamaican athletes belong to “one of the groups that are hard to test”.
Asked if he was happy with the way Jamaica tested its athletes, Pound said: “No, they are one of the groups that are hard to test, it is (hard) to get in and find them and so forth.”

“I think they can expect, with the extraordinary results that they have had, that they will be on everybody’s radar.”

In a release late on Monday, JADCo said it has never received any complaints regarding the athletes not being found for testing.

“This is confirmed by the fact that the WADA database (Anti-Doping Administration and Management System -- ADAMS), holding such information of all tests and missed tests, does not confirm his allegation,” the commission said.

“In addition, JADCo has never received any complaints regarding the athletes not being found for testing.”

JADCo was also concerned at former American sprinter Carl Lewis questioning Jamaica’s testing system, following Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce’s successful defence of their 100 metres titles.