You know that test we had to endure for 61 years?
There's a threat to extend it a bit more.
I was about to go to sleep in the wee hours when I saw this on my X (Twitter) feed. Gilas Pilipinas' Justin Brownlee and Jordan's Sami Bzai allegedly failed the Anti-Doping policy.
Whaaaaaaaat?
Submitted for the approval of the International Testing Agency, social media users are quick to point out that the Asian Games gold medal might land in the hands of the Chinese. Also, Brownlee is our in-house naturalized citizen with Jordan Clarkson strutting his wares in the United States and more recently, Angelo Kouame doing his thing in the French League. Of recent memory, Kiefer Ravena was slapped with a long suspension because of substances he never really looked at on his protein mix.
Brownlee is the second Philippine athlete to fail the test. Mountain biker Ariana Evangelista was caught having erythropoietin in her system. Brownlee had Carboxy-THC while Bzai had dehydrochloromethyl-testosterone metabolite.
Now I am not going to be a legal guy about this case but are there similarities to what happened with Kiefer Ravena? Anyway, when I googled the products associated with Carboxy-THC, it had marijuana in bold letters.
Okay...
When I typed on Google if marijuana is performance-enhancing, these are the results that came in.
Hmmm...
The last search I typed involved legalities. What Bzai and Evangelista allegedly had were performance enhancers. Marijuana is still illegal in a lot of countries - including the Philippines and China.
I am going to stop now.
Bzai and Brownlee are the eighth and ninth alleged violators of the anti-doping rule.
Hopefully, at this point, our players, coaches, and officials are aware of what to take and not to take during these meets. Sure, China is known for its "homecourt advantage" and we're still keeping the gold medal, regardless of whether or not Brownlee can overturn the outcome, the athletes need to be careful of the things they take. This is why other countries employ cooks and bodyguards for their players because there are times when they don't know better.
Anyway, hopefully, this does not affect Brownlee's status at the Olympic qualifiers. Given the outcome and the way the team was hastily built and came out with optimum results, JB is a much better fit especially if there's long-term preparation.