Jarrett's blasts rock Anderson By Charmaine Austin, Staff Reporter JAMAICA AMATEUR Athletic Association (JAAA) president Patrick Anderson has expressed disappointment with statements made by sprinter Patrick Jarrett who was last week found guilty of drug abuse. "I'm a little disturbed that he's casting aspersions, particularly at these illustrious people (the Jamaica panel that investigated the case). To begin with, none of these people are on the executive," Anderson said. "He also attacked the JAAA and I'm not happy about that. We are guided by the rules of the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) and if by following these rules we come up with a particular finding, then we proceed according to these said rules. Besides, it wasn't us who found him positive. "It was the lab in Montreal that decided that. We just took samples, not by name but by number and sent them off and awaited the results. "It's unfortunate that his sample came back positive, but I see no reason for him to be responding in this manner," he said of Jarrett's public attacks on the JAAA and the special panel. A Jamaica panel made up of Dr Alfred Sangster, Dr Aggrey Irons, Professor Errol Morrison and attorneys Anthony Pearson and Lincoln Eatmon found the 23 year-old sprinter guilty of a doping offence under sections 55.2 and 60.1 of the IAAF's rules after investigating the positive test he returned for the prohibited substance stanozolol. The JAAA executive endorsed the decision and forwarded the findings to the IAAF who will make the final decision. Jarrett, who finished second in the 100 metres at the National Championships held here in June, was randomly tested after the event. Jarrett has accused the JAAA of not being supportive and was punishing him because of the role he played in the demonstration at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney regarding the Merlene Ottey/Peta-Gaye Dowdie saga. "They don't give us the kind of emotional, financial and other kinds of support we need. And when something big happens like this, they run away and distance themselves from us," Jarrett said in a recent interview. "This is just a window of opportunity for them to get me after what happened at the Olympics. It's like a buddy buddy system. Nobody looks out for little athletes like myself, only the ones who have already made it big and have tons of money," he said. Anderson responded: That's probably his opinion but he must remember that despite the Association's not having a lot of money, we were helping him with money. A lot of athletes that were not earning on the circuit benefited from our welfare programme and he was one of those who got assistance. "He should also remember that after the trials, I spoke to all the athletes and spoke about the incident in Sydney and told them that justice delayed is justice denied. That was the end of that. I also suggested that we start afresh and try to prevent such an incident happening again." "Now the bottom line is that he signed the form saying that he was satisfied with the testing procedure. He's experienced enough to know that one has to suffer the consequences of their actions. One of the IAAF rules states that an athlete is responsible for what he/she ingests in their body." "The truth is I'm deeply concerned about the patriotism exhibited by some of these athletes," Anderson said. "For some unfortunate reason they have a feeling we are paid administrators and not voluntary."
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