By Duncan Mackay

Usain Bolt and his Jamaican team-mates are among the most drugs tested athletes in the world, according to officials on the Caribbean islandOctober 18 - Doubts over how often Jamaica's top athletes have been drugs tested in the Caribbean country should not be allowed to cast any uncertainty over their performances, it has been claimed.


Earlier this week it was revealed that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) are to travel to the capital Kingston early next year to carry out an audit following claims by Renee Anne Shirley, the former director of the Jamaican Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO), that there there been insufficient out-of-competition testing on athletes in the build-up to London 2012.

Jamaican sprinters won 12 medals at those Olympics, including four gold, with Usain Bolt winning three for the second consecutive Games.

Since then, a number of Jamaican stars, including Veronica Campbell-Brown and Sherone Simpson, who won silver medals at London 2012, and former world 100 metres record holder Asafa Powell, have tested positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs.

But Warren Blake, President of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA), has rallied to the support of the country's top stars.

Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association President Warren Blake has claimed that the country is the most drugs-tested in the worldJamaica Athletics Administrative Association President Warren Blake has claimed that the country is the most drugs-tested in the world

"The IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) has always insisted and monitors its elite athletes to see that they are tested strictly out of competition very often, and Jamaica has always been among the top five most tested nations in the world," Blake told Television Jamaica (TVJ) it was reported on Trackalerts.com.  

"And as the figures shown, last year and the year leading up to the London [2012] Olympics, we were the most tested nation in athletics.

"Even if JADCO did not do a single test, the IAAF make sure that out athletes were tested more than any other athletes in the world."

Blake also claimed that the decision by WADA to travel to Jamaica was not as a result of Shirley's allegations, but because Jamaica's Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller had invited them earlier in the year, along with IAAF President Lamine Diack.

"The invitation to WADA to come to Jamaica was actually given before Ann Shirley came out with what she deemed to be her revelations," Blake told TVJ.

Usain Bolt's coach Glen Mills thinks Jamaica's administrators should be doing more to defend the reputation of the country's top athletesUsain Bolt's coach Glen Mills thinks Jamaica's administrators should be doing more to defend the reputation of the country's top athletes

Bolt's coach Glen Mills, meanwhile, has hit out at the JAAA, who he claimed had not enough to defend Jamaica's athletes.

"Too often they have been silent and dormant, as if they are afraid to come out and defend Jamaica's image," Mills told the Jamaica Gleaner

Mills also claimed that Jamaica were being picked on by jealous rivals.

"They target Jamaica because of its success," he told the Jamaica Gleaner.

"There is no doubt about it.

"Nobody wants to see Jamaica continue its dominance of sprinting at the world level.

"And the international media - again, one has to question the balance of their reporting.

"I have read some terrible articles written about Jamaica.

"I have read some terrible articles trying to insinuate that Usain Bolt's success is false because of all of this.

"We have had some adverse analytical findings for stimulants and those other things, but there are so many cases of steroid use in other countries in the past couple of months, yet there is no sensationalising around those countries or athletes.

"Yet everyone is banging on the Jamaicans because of our success, and the truth of the matter is that our success has come through hard work, excellent coaches, and making the best use of our facilities that are below world-class standards."

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