Asiad gold to stay with PH despite Brownlee dope test

The Asian Games basketball gold medal will stay with the Philippines even as naturalized player Justin Brownlee, who tested positive for a banned substance, faces a two-year suspension if he fails the confirmatory doping test.

“The gold remains with us,” Philippine Olympic Committee president Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino said on Friday, moments after receiving the notice of Brownlee’s failed doping test.

Brownlee, the most important figure in Gilas Pilipinas’ conquest of the men’s basketball event at the recent Hangzhou Games in China, tested for a banned substance as indicated in the report by the International Testing Agency (ITA).

ITA, which was commissioned by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) to handle the dope testing for the biennial meet, said Brownlee has returned an Adverse Analytical Finding for Carboxy-THC, a specified prohibited substance, according to the Prohibited List of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

Brownlee has until October 19 to contest the result of his A Sample through appropriate procedures set by the WADA, ITA, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Tolentino, however, assured Filipinos that the gold medal, won by Gilas over Jordan in the finals, will not be forfeited. It would only be stripped of the gold if two of Brownlee’s teammates also test positive for doping. (See full story online at manilastandard.net)

He cited Article 11.2 of the Anti-Doping Rule of the International Olympic Committee under “Consequences for Team Sports.”

It states that if more than two members of a team are found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation, the CAS [Court of Arbitration for Sport] Anti-Doping Division may impose an appropriate sanction on the team.

Tolentino said that Brownlee’s teammates have also been tested as well as their final opponent Jordan, which also had one player failing the test.

“All Brownlee needs is to prove his innocence in contesting the result if he allows testing his B Sample,” Tolentino added.

Brownlee was the second athlete on Team Philippines in Hangzhou to fail a doping test.

Mountain bike cycling athlete Ariana Evangelista also tested positive for a banned substance in her urine following a