Enlightened-One wrote:The Lucas Browne court hearing has been rescheduled to take place for the 24th August. It’s too much of a coincidence, in my mind, that this announcement has been made in the midst of the media furore about the Russian Olympic drug scandal. Perhaps the WBA are reconsidering their position?
Am I wrong in thinking that VADA doesn’t have any ground troops in Russia, so when Browne failed the drug test administered after the Chagaev bout, it must have been performed by an independent Russian agency?
When you’ve got fellow pros, like Tony Bellew, refusing to compete in Russia (due to the recent drug scandals), coupled with Russia’s anti-doping lab admitting to cheating tests for several years, it does add some credibility to Lucas Browne’s defence.
It seems that the WBA acted hastily in issuing a ban to Browne and stripping him of his title, especially if there are lingering doubts about the accuracy of the test results.
http://vada-testing.org/forms/vada_spec ... edures.pdf
It looks like you are correct.
Third paragraph, second line:
"the sample collection organization that is supplying the Doping Control Officer (DCO) who will oversee the sample collection on-site"
That's interesting and can only help the Browne case.
At the same time it is unlikely that VADA found a tiny amount of a banned substance in Povetkin by using the very same people everybody wants to avoid.
Same goes for the Browne case.
VADA is/was probably just as wary of the Russian agencies as everybody else.
What "sample collection organization" did they send?
Plus it's still just a conspiracy theory that they need a court to go along with.
Probably the best conspiracy theory ever(as far as athletes and drug tests go) but still something that's going to be tough to prove.
The WBA acted on the information they had at the time. All this information about state lead drug cheating came out well after the Browne/Chagaev fight.
What they had at the time was a failed drug test and a boxer claiming he was innocent, nothing more.
Plus the WBA has a court order to get Oquendo a fight for this title which likely hastened their actions(and could possibly help the Browne case).
It certainly is interesting though.
Usually these claims of being set up are just ridiculous, this is by far the most reasonable one I can recall.
The Browne camp needs to stop with the "heavyweights get no benefit from Clenbuterol" though. It's just not true.
Clenbuterol isn't a miracle drug, you still have to burn more calories than you take in to lose weight. If you want the aerobic benefit of Clenbuterol but aren't trying to drop weight increase your calorie intake.