A WELSH CHAMPIONSHIP rugby player has been handed a four-year ban after testing positive for a banned substance.
UK Anti-Doping [UKAD] confirmed today that Ystalyfera RFC player Jesse Patton has been suspended from all sport due to a positive test for metendienone, an anabolic steroid, last September.
Patton said his positive test was “absolutely unintentional” but an independent National Anti-Doping Panel banned him for four years through until midnight on 7 November 2023.
Patton denied committing an anti-doping rule violation and claimed that his failed test may have been due to taking a medication his friend gave him after he had contracted a sexually transmitted disease.
“[H]e told me he had medication to help clear it which he had bought online, he then gave me a few tablets and he told me to take them for the next 5 days to clear it,” reads a statement from Patton in the written report for the case.
“I thought nothing of it, my irritations had healed and I felt much better. I rang him last week out of curiosity, I asked him what he had given me and did he know if they were safe?
“He said he had ordered them online, he wasn’t sure of the pharmaceutical company that made them, but the tablets were called “Fluconazole”. I did some google research into this and I found out that “Methandienone” was a compound that was labelled under the medical umbrella “Fluconazole”.”
However, the National Anti-Doping Panel ruled that Patton’s explanation “amounted to speculation and did not account for the presence of the Metabolites in his Sample because he had not been able to identify the batch or brand of medication and nor had he provided any tablets nor any evidence as to its ingredients.
“Further, Fluconazole is a different compound from metandienone and the Player had produced no evidence to establish that any form of Fluconazole contains metandienone.”
The panel decided to hand Patton a four-year ban. The player has the right to appeal within 21 days of receiving the written decision.
Ystalyfera RFC play in the Welsh Championship, which is the second tier of domestic rugby in Wales.
UKAD’s Stacey Cross said: “Steroids and other prohibited substances have no place in sport. If you take the risk, you could be facing a ban from sport as a result.”
