Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson to Sue Supplement Company
According to Athletics Weekly, the management agency for Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson will sue supplement company Epiphany D1 for more than US$ 8 million after the athletes failed drug tests.
Both sprinters had positive test results for oxilofrine at the national championships two years ago and were suspended by a Jamaican anti-doping disciplinary panel. Their suspension was later reduced to six months following an appeal.
It was argued at a Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing that Epiphany D1 manufacturers failed to specify oxilofrine in their listed ingredients.
Powell’s agent Paul Doyle, who is the director of Doyle Management, also explained how one of the ingredients listed on the bottle had never been put into the product. “We found out later that the supplement company actually put something else on the label that they didn’t put in the product,” he said. “They put on the label Acacia Rigidula, which is a natural plant that grows in Texas and has a sort of stimulant property just as caffeine would have, but they didn’t actually put that in there, they put oxilofrine in instead.”
Having had the supplement tested by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), they were able to confirm that the banned drug was in that particular product and that their claims were correct, meaning that Epiphany D1 has now been placed on the US Anti-Doping Agency’s High Risk Dietary Supplement List.
Source: Athletics Weekly