SPORT IRELAND HAVE announced that Kerry footballer Brendan O’Sullivan tested positive for the stimulant methylhexaneamine and served a suspension of seven months.
O’Sullivan committed the anti-doping violation for a drug that is commonly found in pre-workout drinks. He was tested the same day he appeared as a substitute against Dublin in the Division 1 league final on 24 April 2016.
Sport Ireland “accepted that it was a contaminated product case, that Mr. O’Sullivan bore no significant fault or negligence.”
The midfielder’s suspension was split in two. He was provisionally suspended for 11 weeks from 13 May to 28th July 2016, before his suspension was lifted by the chair of the disciplinary panel as the “violation was likely to have involved a contaminated product.”
The GAA Anti-Doping Committee imposed a seven month suspension (reduced from the standard four years) but it was declined by O’Sullivan on 5 January.
After an appeal, a six month suspension was handed out by the committee on 13 February. The player appealed again on 16 March to the Irish Sport anti-doping disciplinary panel, who reduced the suspension to 21 weeks.
The panel decided that the remaining 10 weeks of O’Sullivan’s suspension commenced on 26 February.
Methylhexanamine is the same drug that cost Usain Bolt his Olympic gold medal from 2008 after re-analysis of Nesta Carter’s sample last January.
Inter-county players are required to make themselves available for drug tests after games and training sessions as part of the GAA’s government funding.
The42 revealed on 21 May that five inter-county teams missed mandatory drug tests in the last two years.
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