PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC– Trinidad and Tobago sports minister Anil Roberts has questioned the decision by the National Amateur Athletics Association (NAAA) to lift a provisional ban on sprinter Semoy Hackett after she tested positive for a banned substance.
Roberts has also objected to the decision by the NAAA to select Hackett as a member of the national team for the current IAAF World Championships in Moscow.
The sports Minister’s statement follows a release from the NAAA on Monday confirming that both Hackett and fellow local sprinter Kelly-Ann Baptiste withdrew from the Championships due to “doping matters of varying degrees”.
“The Semoy Hackett issue is a very serious one and it shows some negligence and irresponsibility and downright disregard for the reputation of Trinidad and Tobago, not only as a sporting nation but as a country with a proud history of tremendous achievements,” said Roberts.
“We are now talking that Semoy Hackett has tested positive, not once but twice. She was penalised. She was serving a ban. Why did the NAAA lift or suspend that ban?”
Hackett tested positive for a banned substance in March last year, and was handed a retroactive six-month ban that ended in March.
She competed at the London Olympics in July and reached the women’s 200 metres final.
However, she returned a positive test for the same substance at the 2012 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships, in Iowa, United States in July, which resulted in the provisional ban.
“We do not cheat. We live with class, we win with class, we lose with class…we have to send a message to our children…if you cheat, you are out,” the sports Minister said.
“This is a dark mark on the history of T&T sport”.
The NAAA disciplinary panel lifted the provisional ban, clearing the way for Hackett to compete at this year’s National Championships, and thus making her eligible for the World Championships after she qualified by finishing second in the 200 metres.
The NAAA’s decision to select Hackett for the World Championships was made despite the IAAF appeal to the NAAA ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
“The NAAA met and took a decision to lift the ban to allow Hackett to compete in our National Championships and selected her on the team to go to Moscow, leading to this totally embarrassing situation” Roberts insisted.