Drugs in Sport...

[hatchy84]

On a day when Australian sport was smeared with claims of drug cheating, police confirmed they have uncovered vials of urine hidden in dressing room plumbing at the Gold Coast Titans home ground during a bomb-sweep exercise.

The suspicious discovery was revealed on Thursday as Australia's biggest drugs-in-sport scandal erupted.

Police sources told The Courier-Mail the containers were found stashed in the Titans home dressing rooms at Skilled Park stadium, Robina, by officers undertaking bomb detection training ahead of next year's G20 summit in Brisbane.

The discovery is believed had been referred to the Australian Sports Anti Doping Authority (ASADA).

Titans management was immediately informed but said they have not been contacted by ASADA.

The NRL club's operations boss, Ian Buchanan, said the discovery was a mystery and the vials could have been put there by any sporting team that used the ground.

"The Rugby Sevens were played there in October and there was a rugby Test between Australia and Argentina in September," he said.

"There is more than one tenant at Skilled Park and I certainly don't think it's fair to point the finger at us.

"It (the urine) could even have been left there from the soccer days (when the now-defunct Gold Coast United played at Skilled Park)."

Mr Buchanan said police had advised Titans CEO David May about the discovery as a "heads-up".

"They said it was found during a bomb sweep," he said.

"There was nothing formal about it. They didn't ask for a 'please explain'. How could they when there are so many teams that use the venue?"

Mr Buchanan said strict ASADA protocols surrounding drug testing made it virtually impossible to switch samples.

Players were followed into the dressing room by drug testers and monitored before being taken to a separate room to provide a sample.

"Every move they make is watched, to the extent of them actually urinating into the bottle," Mr Buchanan said.

The Titans played their last 2012 home game at Skilled Park in early September and resumed training in November.

Players are drug-tested in the off-season but Mr Buchanan said they did not normally train at Skilled Park.

A spokesman for Skilled Park operator Stadiums Queensland said the Queensland Police Service had not advised of the urine vial find.

The Courier-Mail sought comment from ASADA but it was not forthcoming last night.

The Titans earlier released a statement pledging the club's full support into the NRL's investigation into doping and integrity in the wake of the damning Australian Crime Commission investigation.

[hatchy84]

Don't know how to start a thread on mobile but just found this hope there not ours

[DIEHARD]

God damn it. This doesn't look good. No two ways about it.

[DIEHARD]

Titans said 'Thanks but no Danks' to controversial sport scientist
Peter Babel

THE Gold Coast Titans rejected approaches from sports science guru Stephen Dank amid fears a proposed supplement regime could include the illegal practices that have rocked Australian sport.

The Courier-Mail can reveal the Titans took a proactive stance on drugs in sport after fielding approaches twice in the past four years - the first allegedly directly from Dank - to bolster their high-performance program.

On the most recent occasion last November, the supplement regime put forward raised such alarm bells that Titans high-performance staff refused the external scientific help.

Titans boss David May confirmed last night that the club briefly dealt with Dank, the former Manly sports scientist now embroiled in the Essendon drugs saga that has sparked an ASADA and Australian Crime Commission investigation.

"I can confirm we have had two approaches," May said.

"The first was in 2009 from Steve Dank and one more recently (from a third-party) claiming to be an associate of his.

"The first conversation was about the supply of GPS equipment and supplements.

"The second meeting was about the provision of supplements.

"On both occasions we declined their invitation to provide training supplements to the club and moved on."

Asked if illegal peptides were involved in the supplement plan, May said: "We weren't sure about the products that were to be supplied so we rejected them.

"As I understand it, the supplements were those which we weren't comfortable with within the sport's regulations so we rejected them immediately."

A source close to Dank last night scoffed at suggestions the controversial former Essendon performance scientist peddled illegal substances to AFL or NRL clubs.

The source claimed Dank operated within the rules in the NRL and used mainly Vitamin B, Vitamin C and glutathiamine injections, which deliver antioxidants.

Dank is a director of a company marketing peptides banned from sale in Australia and outlawed in sport by the World Anti Doping Agency.

Dank co-owns Sydney-based Medical Rejuvenation Clinic which boasts "a substantial range of Australian produced Protein Peptides ... at very competitive prices".

Its website makes special reference to 15 products, including GHRP6, CJC1295, IGF1, SARM, Hexarelin and MGF, which the Therapeutic Goods Administration said were "not registered for use in Australia" and "should not be available for commercial supply or sale".

The peptides are also strictly prohibited for use by professional athletes both in and out of competition by the World Anti Doping Agency.

The company was formed by Dank with three co-directors in 2011.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au./sport/nrl/

[Mr Stupid]

The bomb squad succeeded in dropping a media bomb on us but the Badel article shows the club in a very good light. This is a Pandora's Box and I suspect every club and many individuals will be drawn in over the coming weeks. Just hope the fall out for us (and NRL generally) isn't too great.

[DIEHARD]

The bomb squad succeeded in dropping a media bomb on us but the Badel article shows the club in a very good light. This is a Pandora's Box and I suspect every club and many individuals will be drawn in over the coming weeks. Just hope the fall out for us (and NRL generally) isn't too great.

Yep very happy the Titans showed sound judgement in blowing off Dank.

[Titanic]

If there is one thing I hate it is this type of innuendo which can never be erased once it has been printed:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au./sp...-1226573027718

It leaves me with doubt in my mind about our players and staff no matter what anybody says ... just the thought of any of our players disregarding urine testing is stomach turning.

[DIEHARD]

Urine vials found in sportsground plumbing

UPDATED

Police say no further action will be taken after at least one vial of urine was found hidden in the plumbing at the home ground of NRL's Gold Coast Titans, which the club chief has dubbed a "mystery''.

Vials of urine have been found hidden in the plumbing of the dressing rooms at Skilled Park on the Gold Coast. Photo: Mark Dadswell/Getty Images

The vial was discovered in the dressing room plumbing, while police conducted a bomb-detection training exercise at Skilled Park in Robina, Queensland, as part of preparations for the G20 summit in Brisbane next year.

Titans chief executive David May said he was advised of the discovery by police on Thursday, the same day a major report linking Australia's major sports codes to widespread illicit drug use and organised crime was released.

‘‘We were advised there was a vial," he told ABC Radio.

Mr May described the find as a mystery, saying the vial could belong to any one of the 45 teams which had played at the stadium in recent months.

"We established first up what the facts of the matter were and at this point we don’t really know very much," he said.

‘‘Obviously there’s been 45 other teams [that] have been through the changing room in question since we last used it."

The Titans played their last 2012 home game at Skilled Park in early September and resumed training in November.

‘‘The most recent teams have been through the ARU through the Rugby Sevens - they had 44 teams through there - and there was an Australia/Argentina test match through there," Mr May said.

He said police had handed the vial to the Australian Sports Anti Doping Authority for investigation.

"The important thing is that it’s been found and it’s been passed to ASADA and ultimately the best place for this to be investigated is ASADA," he said.

Police said officers conducted the training exercise at the stadium on the weekend, not on Thursday as previously reported.

'‘Police conducted the training on the weekend, but we are unable to comment any further,’’ a police spokeswoman said.

However, Skilled Park venue manager David Lloyd said police had been at the stadium on Tuesday.

He said he had not yet been formally advised of the discovery, adding the vial could have been there ‘‘for a number of years’’, although police regularly staged training exercises at the Gold Coast stadium.

‘‘I’m sure in a sweep they don’t go round and open every toilet system that we’ve got in the stadium,’’ he told ABC Radio.

‘‘We don’t even know what it was that was found ... whatever it is could be anything and it could be from or by anybody.’’

He said the dressing rooms were not secured, even outside the football season.

‘‘Anybody could walk in,’’ he said. ‘‘They’re used for a myriad of purposes.’’

Mr May stressed there was no evidence to suggest the vial of liquid was linked to the Titans.

"It's not really something we can do anything about, and to be honest I'm not entirely sure it's something we should be doing something about, because it's not something that was found in our offices, in our building," he said.

Mr May said he believed the NRL was at the ‘‘higher level’’ of anti-doping compliance in Australian sport, but conceded the vial discovery would ultimately tarnish the code and the club.

‘‘The media reporting of the issue will eventually tarnish our reputation, but the facts of the matter don’t. The facts of the matter are that 45 other teams have been through those changing rooms,’’ he said.


‘‘We don’t know how long that sample has been there. There’s hundreds of teams that [have used] that dressing room over the life of the stadium. I am not worried that the facts of the matter will impact us.’’

In a statement on Thursday, Mr May pledged the Titans' full support for the NRL’s investigation into doping and integrity issues after the release of the Australian Crime Commission’s scathing report.

“As a club we have a zero-tolerance policy that is strictly enforced,’’ he said.

‘‘We believe there is no place for drugs in our game. I’ve got absolute confidence that the club is fully compliant with the standards set and regulated by ASADA.’’

More to come ...

http://www.smh.com.au/r

[DIEHARD]

GCU is also a suspect. But unfortunately Titanic and David May are correct that this will reflect badly on our club.

[shamus]

Dressing rooms? Do they mean the change shed? If so, home or away shed? If it the home team shed then that still proves nothing but if it is the away shed then that would clear us right?

[lonegull]

Agree with what titanic has mentioned,the titans reputation will again be tarnished. The titans may be in the clear and it will never get proven who put the vial there, but have a look at all the media reports they all state the 'titans home ground' not skilled park so first impression the readers get oh well it must of been a titans player they dont know that there would have been hundreds of players from different codes pass through the dressing sheds.

[DIEHARD]

Agree with what titanic has mentioned,the titans reputation will again be tarnished. The titans may be in the clear and it will never get proven who put the vial there, but have a look at all the media reports they all state the 'titans home ground' not skilled park so first impression the readers get oh well it must of been a titans player they dont know that there would have been hundreds of players from different codes pass through the dressing sheds.

Exactly

[DIEHARD]

UPDATE: SUSPICIOUS 'vials' of urine found by police in the Gold Coast Titans dressing rooms were in fact a single jam jar around five years old, the NRL club says.

Titans CEO David May has ruled out a connection to the club and says the case is closed.

He fronted a media conference at Titans pre-season training on Friday morning after The Courier-Mail revealed police had found the urine hidden in plumbing in the club dressing rooms at Skilled Park, Robina, on Monday during a bomb detection exercise ahead of next year's G20 summit in Brisbane.

Mr May said he had been advised by the stadium manager that urine was contained in a 'very old' jam jar.

"The police have confirmed that it's not a matter they'll be taking any further," he said.

"The jar is, as we've been told, around about five years old. There's hundreds of teams that have been through that change room and just statistically, the chance that it's a Titans issue is very small."

Mr May said the the Australian Sport Anti Doping Authority had not contacted the club but he would welcome any testing of its players.

"Nobody in the sporting world or in the (anti-doping) regime or in the police is actually associating this issue with us so we haven't been contacted and we don't expect to be," he said.

Mr May was asked if he could categorically rule out any Titans link to the jam jar.

"There is nobody in the club that has any knowledge of anything that's related to that," he said.

"As far as all of the information I've been given, there's no connection at all between that jar and the club.

"The case is .... closed."

Mr May said the Titans adhered to the highest anti-doping standards and had a 'zero tolerance' on drugs.


Police found the urine hidden in dressing room plumbing at the Gold Coast Titans home ground during a bomb-sweep exercise.

The suspicious discovery was revealed yesterday as Australia's biggest drugs-in-sport scandal erupted.

Police sources told The Courier-Mail the container was found stashed in the Titans home dressing rooms at Skilled Park stadium, Robina, by officers undertaking bomb detection training ahead of next year's G20 summit in Brisbane.

Earlier, the Titans' longest-serving high-performance expert said he was shocked by the discovery and insisted the NRL club was "drug-free".

Respected strength-and-conditioning guru Chris McLellan told News Limited he had no involvement.

While the Titans are a major tenant of Skilled, a slew of domestic and international sporting teams have used the venue in recent months, headlined by rugby's World Sevens tournament in October.

McLellan, who left the club at the end of last season, joined Gold Coast for their NRL debut in 2007 and is adamant the urine uncovered was not associated with himself or anybody at the Titans.

"I don't know where the vials have come from," he said today.

"... but I can confirm they have nothing to do with the Titans.

"I was with the club from day one so I knew everything that went on with sports-science there and the Titans are drug-free.

"I have absolutely no idea where these vials have come from and why they would even be there. I am baffled by it.

"There doesn't seem to have been any identification on the vials, is it an ASADA vial or one specific to a certain club?"

The discovery is believed had been referred to the Australian Sports Anti Doping Authority (ASADA).

The NRL club's operations boss, Ian Buchanan, said the discovery was a mystery and the urine could have been put there by any sporting team that used the ground.

"The Rugby Sevens were played there in October and there was a rugby Test between Australia and Argentina in September," he said.

"There is more than one tenant at Skilled Park and I certainly don't think it's fair to point the finger at us.

"It (the urine) could even have been left there from the soccer days (when the now-defunct Gold Coast United played at Skilled Park)."

McLellan, a former Broncos lower grader, confirmed the Titans regularly performed urine testing for hydration purposes but said almost every sample was taken at the nearby Centre of Excellence training facility.

He added the Titans briefly conducted blood tests, but only to gauge "muscle-damage markers".

McLellan said he would be surprised if there was anything sinister in the discovery of urine vials.

"There has been a heap of traffic there (Skilled Park) in recent months. They had the World Sevens rugby tournament there so hundreds of players used the stadium, I honestly believe it was something innocent," he said.

"There is nothing you can do with urine. You don't store it to use it or avoid any detection. It is a waste product so there would be no point hiding it.

"If you found vials of a banned substance, then you have a major issue. But urine vials are really only used for hydration testing.

"I would say someone has forgotten to put it in the disposable bin and it's been left behind.

"In my time there, we didn't even do urine testing at Skilled Park.

"The only urine testing we did was for hydration and when we did it, we would do it off-site. We mainly did it at the Centre of Excellence and sometimes on game days we would do it at team meetings at surf clubs.

"The only other urine testing that was done by the club was done as part of the in-house drug-testing requirements under the NRL's rules and regulations.

"The testing vials we used had serial numbers so if one was lost it would be easily identifiable.

"Even with our in-house tests, I would label vials with players' initials so these vials clearly have nothing to do with the Titans."

Of the blood testing, McLellan said: "The only blood testing we did involved taking some fingerprint samples for a number of research projects. But as a standard practice, no, we didn't do it every week.

"We did not do DNA testing, the testing we did was to measure muscle-damage markers in their blood, that's all.

"There was nothing sinister to it whatsoever."

Mr Buchanan said police had advised Titans CEO David May about the discovery as a "heads-up".

"They said it was found during a bomb sweep," he said.

"There was nothing formal about it. They didn't ask for a 'please explain'. How could they when there are so many teams that use the venue?"

[DIEHARD]

Stephen Dank is set to deliver an explosive tell-all interview about the Essendon drugs scandal
Peter Badel

STEPHEN Dank, the man at the centre of the Essendon drugs saga, is set to deliver an explosive tell-all interview in which he pledges his innocence in the scandal that has rocked Australian sport.

After several days in hiding, sources close to Dank say the controversial sports scientist is ready to emerge from the maelstrom to fully explain his methods and declare he never administered illegal substances to athletes in the AFL or NRL.

It is understood Dank has been in talks with ABC's 7.30 Report and could appear in coming days, possibly as early as tonight.

It is believed the man dubbed "The Pharmacist" has told sources he has nothing to hide ahead of the interview.

The former Essendon sports-science guru offered an emphatic "no" when asked by News Limited on Wednesday whether he had knowingly given or injected banned substances to Bombers players.

But after staying silent for 48 hours as ASADA and the Australian Crime Commission ramp-up investigations into doping and alleged organised crime links, Dank is ready to open up, including detailed accounts of the practices he employed at various clubs including Essendon and former NRL premiers Manly.

A source close to Dank has scoffed at suggestions the former Essendon employee, nicknamed 'The Professor', peddled illegal substances to AFL or NRL clubs.

The source claimed Dank operated within the rules in the NRL and used mainly Vitamin B, Vitamin C and glutathiamine injections, which deliver antioxidants, with Essendon players.

"Claims that Steve may have cheated at Manly are ridiculous," the insider said.

"He didn't go into peptides, he looked at DNA-profiling and the (Manly) club used injections with calves blood but that was never illegal.

"I can't see Dank helping out other NRL teams ... he did his own work."

A friend of Dank told News Limited this morning: "I have known Stephen for years and I can't see him getting into anything illegal.

"There is no doubt he is an offbeat sort of guy, he's very intelligent, very dedicated to sports science ... but whether he would be administering illegal substances, who knows?"

A 12-month investigation by the ACC released yesterday found illegal drugs were present in Australian sport and being facilitated by sports scientists, high-level coaches and sports staff.

A leading AFL conditioner, who has conducted extensive research into drugs in sport, explained why sporting teams would be playing with fire by using illegal peptides such as GHRP-6.

"We would be naive if we thought it wasn't happening, but I don't know of anyone (in AFL or rugby league) who is using it," he said.

"There is no evidence to prove (using peptides) actually works.

"Peptides such as GHRP-6 are designed to produce growth hormone which helps with muscle mass, so if anything it would be more useful with rugby league athletes than those in the AFL.

"There are hundreds of peptides, some are legal and some are not, and that is what ASADA will have to work out.

"Most blokes in our field would not go near this stuff. There is no real research on the effects on the body and how effective it is.

"If Essendon are doing it, it is certainly not commonplace."

http://m.heraldsun.com.au/afl/

[TITAN PETE]

Someone is always trying to take the Pi## out of us