De Bruin heartened by test findings

Michelle De Bruin's legal team yesterday expressed satisfaction following revelations by a doctor in England that the containers used to transport athletes' urine samples can be opened and closed without detection.

Dr David Brown, a physical chemist, illustrated on Tuesday that the Versapak containers, similar to the ones used in the transportation of the triple Olympic gold medallist's sample, can be opened and closed, without detection, by immersion in boiling in water. Brown has now been retained by de Bruins's team.

"It was possible to get in (to the container). I'm not saying it wasn't," acknowledged a Versapak spokesperson yesterday.

Peter Lennon, de Bruin's solicitor, claimed that Brown's finding was "highly significant" for his client's appeal hearing to the Court for Arbitration in Sport (CAS) on May 3rd. De Bruin is appealing a four-year ban from swimming for tampering with a urine sample.

Lennon also said that the finding was not news and that the opening of that type of Versapak container, now out of circulation, was widely known.

"We put it to the FINA doping control panel and they pooh, poohed it, saying that it was only a theoretical possibility. We've retained Dr Brown on behalf of Michelle. I don't think now it will be dismissed at the CAS as it was with FINA. Now we know for certain that the sample could have been interfered with by any imbecile at any stage," said Lennon.

"I don't think we have to put forward any proposition as to why or who would interfere in such a way with a sample. It is no concern of ours as to who did it or why. CAS now have to ask - was there a possibility that this could have been interfered with? She is entitled to the benefit of the doubt."

De Bruin, yesterday, told RTE news that it was a major breakthrough. "We'll be getting a video of this," she said. "And we'll be bringing the video and Dr Brown with us to the appeal hearing."

The appeal hearing, however, will not hinge on just one issue and although the burden of proof rests with FINA, de Bruin will be asked to convince the appeal panel that her conspiracy theory, which contends that persons unknown opened the A and B samples and contaminated them with alcohol, is plausible and reasonable.

Testing employs a chain of custody which strives to be totally secure and adheres to a strict code of ethics. Theoretically samplers are the only people who know the name of the athlete who supplied the sample as the samples thereafter contain only coded numbers. The laboratories do not know the identity of the athlete, although this, too, is contested by Lennon.

"We say the laboratory did know. It is not reasonable to expect us to believe they didn't know they were dealing with Michelle de Bruin's sample," he said.

Professor David Cowen, head of the Drugs Control Centre at King's College London, points out that like most systems the testing procedure has several in-built security procedures.

"One of the things that has been missed is that any safe can be broken into. You can get into houses with locked doors. Nothing is 100 per cent secure. There are all sorts of different checks in place and at the end of the day you have to ask - is it realistic in this situation?"

Dr Don Catlin of the Olympic laboratory in Los Angeles says that if urine was boiled inside a canister for 15 or 20 minutes this would be evident in the standard tests performed. Although there are few proteins in urine and Brown claims to be able to open the vessel in three minutes, the analogy of poaching an egg in boiling water has been used as a way of explanation.

"The proteins in the urine would coagulate. It seems to me the signs of boiling would be evident also if this (Versapak) had been placed in boiling water," he said.

The experiments carried out by Brown were initiated at the behest of a twice-banned English shot putter, Paul Edwards. His suspension has now been lifted.

Brown, who according to yesterday's Daily Mail newspaper, was an official at Edwards's first club, said that when he realised the containers were made of high-density polyethylene, he realised the potential insecurity.

"Now we know the system and materials are not as they (FINA) alleged they are. We know they can be opened," argues Lennon.

It appears to be one link fractured in a chain of procedures, although FINA have already accepted the possibility that Versapak container could be opened. However, they still banned de Bruin because they found the conspiracy theory unbelievable. The question is will the appeal hearing find it significant enough to quash the ban or will they stand behind the testing company (who have never lost a case), the IOC accredited laboratory in Barcelona and the swimming federation?