media_artricles :: 2013

Ex-president says NAAA erred in matter

Former National Association of Athletics Administrations (NAAA) president Ken Doldron feels the Association has blundered in the way it has handled the Semoy Hackett affair.

While he noted that the Ministry of Sport has its part to play in the strained relations with the NAAA, Doldron feels the NAAA also has to take its share of the blame.

Although stressing that he had no desire to become involved in the current tiff between the parties, Doldron offered the opinion that Hackett’s ban—after twice testing positive for banned stimulant methylhexamine in 2011 and 2012—should not have been overturned by the Association.

“Regarding the Minister and conflict, it is clearly in my view NAAA has erred in how they handled the matter,” he told the Express yesterday. “How can you have someone test positive (and overturn their ban?) You have the information, there is protocol for that. If you have an issue (that requires taking medication), you notify the IAAF three months before the games. They will look at the drug and see if they will allow it... A lot of people don’t understand the sport and drugs, even if you administer the sport.”

Doldron added: “You cannot come and rescind that decision now to give the person an opportunity to go. Because then you have become a judge (on the matter).”

But on the Minister’s assertion that the NAAA bypassed the general council to ratify the World Championships team, he said Roberts was wrong.

“The general council doesn’t have the authority within the constitution of the NAAA to ratify anything,” Doldron explained. “What the general council has is if they are of the view that someone was left out, there is a procedure for you to have a special meeting and bring that up to the executive.”

Where the general council’s power would lie, he revealed, is in the appointment of persons to attend international conferences, and not with national teams, which are ratified by team management and the NAAA executive.

Doldron also said on the matter of preparing teams for competition and requesting funding, the NAAA needed to be timelier in dealing with that, saying that requests should be made with “six months’ notice”.

Top