Cycling South Africa reports that Tyronne White has been found guilty of an anti-doping rule violation after an in-competition test conducted on 30 April 2016 confirmed the presence of the Glucocorticoid, Dexamethasone.
The SAIDS Independent Doping Hearing Panel imposed a period of ineligibility of 18 months, commencing on 14 December 2016. Mr. White is therefore suspended and prohibited from competing and administering in the sport of Cycling as well as in any other sport in South Africa and Internationally from 14 December 2016 until 13 June 2018. This decision may be appealed by Mr. White, the UCI, WADA and SAIDS.
Cycling South Africa respects the independence of the SAIDS process and will respect the outcome. Cycling SA further reiterates its zero-tolerance approach to doping in sport and will continue working with SAIDS in the promotion of a drug-free sport via its awareness and extensive testing programmes.
Too generic a statement - it's not as simple as that - I don't know why Ty was prescribed what he was allegedly prescribed - must have been more to it than just simple dehydration.
The normal race doc at J2C is pretty sharp I think - having had some discussions with him a couple of years ago when we raced J2C - can't remember his name unfortunately - and there is no guarantee who it was at all - one hopes for Ty's sake there is adequate documentation of exactly what was given to him and why - this surely would have been presented at his hearing I suppose - there is in any case the potential for an appeal still I understand - have to wait and see what comes out of that - but there are 2 basics to me that are important:
1 - The ATHLETE is (a) responsible for what goes in his body - both checking if it is on the restricted list and if necessary (b) following the TUE process
2 - From my admittedly somewhat limited knowledge of what allegedly happened (only the public announcement basically) neither of those things seemed to have happened (this assumes it happened the way the announcement says it did) and the drugs were legitimately prescribed - if you get sanctioned for not doing what the rules tell you to do, then it's pretty much your own fault and you have to just suck it up and learn from the experience
Trying to shift accountability to the medic for not doing what the athlete is supposed to manage is offside in my view - but if they really feel that it is the medics responsibility then they should file a complaint with HPCSA and get it reviewed properly - I will put a small donation to the red cross childrens hospital on the line that says this won't happen - the rule is clear.... they can be read here:
http://www.drugfreesport.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/SAIDS-Anti-Doping-Rules-2015.pdf
Read article 2 - cut and past of a section