Cycling: Ban on rider for ordering drugs

Adam Stewart in 2005. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Banned Commonwealth Games cyclist Adam Stewart has become the first athlete to be caught with blood-boosting drug erythropoietin in this country.

The disgraced sprinter was caught not through testing but through information received through government agencies Customs and MedSafe.

The Sports Tribunal said yesterday that Stewart, 23, had admitted importing six syringes of EPO, an ampoule each of chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and pregnyl solvent and had been banned from competing for two years.

Stewart claimed not to have taken any of the substances and BikeNZ chief executive Kieran Turner said he had been "well tested, as have all of the riders".

Stewart opened a post office box in Lincoln in March last year under the false name of Ben Owen, but used his own driver's licence to register the box.

A package was addressed and sent to Ben Owen in May but was intercepted by Customs and referred to MedSafe, which contacted Drug Free Sport NZ.

Jayne Kernohan, general manager of Drug Free Sport, said Stewart was training in a BikeNZ camp in Europe and had been named in the Commonwealth Games squad.

"We sent an investigator immediately to Germany to interview Adam," Kernohan said. Stewart admitted the offence and left the camp.

Last year marathon runner Liza Hunter-Galvan tested positive to EPO, but she had bought the blood-booster over the counter in Mexico and failed a test in the United States.

"Gone are the days when the only method of catching athletes who are doping is through testing," said Drug Free Sport chief executive Graeme Steel.

"We now have other powerful tools and this case provides a very good example of how they can be used.

"This should provide a strong message to any other athletes who may be contemplating doping. There are many ways in which you can be tripped up and the penalties, if and when you are caught, are simply not worth the risk."

Stewart issued a statement through his lawyer, saying: "I have made a huge mistake and I realise that, even though I have never taken any performance- enhancing drugs, I have still done something terribly wrong."

"I have not only let myself down but the people that mean the most to me, my family, friends, the sport and my teammates."