Asafa Powell Says Trainer Injected Him for Injury

Former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell dropped a bombshell when he revealed that he was given injections by Canadian physical trainer Chris Xuereb for a hamstring injury. Powell was testifying at the first day of his anti-doping hearing in Kingston Tuesday, January 14.

When asked by Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) panel chairman, attorney Lennox Gayle, whether it was the norm for a person who is not a medical doctor to be administering injections, Powell responded that he had gotten the injection once before from his doctor in Germany and never asked him for his credentials, so he wouldn’t know if it was the norm for every physiotherapist to do so.

Further quizzed by another member of the JADCO panelist, Jephathah Ford, about the frequency of the injections and what were in them, Powell said he received about four injections ( including vitamin B12), the same injection that his doctor in Germany used as anti-inflammatory treatment soon after he injured his hamstring.

Powell said he was satisfied with his checks after witnessing Xuereb take the drug from a sealed box before administering it at his (Powell’s) house. It was Powell’s agent, Paul Doyle, who recommended Xuereb to Powell when he asked Doyle to provide him with a trainer. Xuereb, he said, began treating him with massages that improved his training.

Given 9 Supplements

The 31-yr-old 100m specialist, who tested positive for oxilofrine at the Jamaica Championships last year, revealed he was given approximately nine supplements by Xuereb, which he took for some three weeks, but only submitted three names on the doping control form at the Championships because he could not remember all the names. Oxilofrine was found in the product Epiphany D1, one of the supplements that Powell received from Xuereb, which triggered the adverse analytical finding.

He recalled that after he was given the Epiphany D1, he and a friend used Google to research the product on the Internet for anything that linked it to the list of banned substances on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Web site, but he found nothing and came to the conclusion that it was legal.

Powell further said that on Xuereb’s advice he doubled the dosage of the Epiphany D1: four tablets on the day of the National Trials in June 2013. He took the first set of two tablets at about 6:30 a.m. – more than 12 hours before he ran in the 100m semi-finals at about 7:15 p.m. – and the second set two hours later. He finished seventh in the final.

The hearing case was adjourned until February 12-13.