Rugby League athlete Luke Capewell receives sanction
Press Release
30th April 2018
The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) today acknowledged the decision of Queensland Rugby League to impose a one year ban on athlete Luke Capewell for the presence of a prohibited substance.
Mr Capewell provided a sample on 18 May 2017 during an out-of-competition test. The sample was analysed at the Australian Sports Drug Testing Laboratory, part of the National Measurement Institute, which detected the presence of Higenamine.
Higenamine is banned at all times under the S3 class of Beta-2 Agonists on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Prohibited List 2017 and is increasingly being detected in dietary supplements.
Mr Capewell accepted an optional provisional suspension on 11 August 2017 and waived his right to a hearing accepting the sanction on 22 February 2018. As a result, he is ineligible to participate, as an athlete or support person, in any sports that have adopted a World Anti-Doping Code compliant anti-doping policy until 11 August 2018.
ASADA’s longstanding advice is that athletes can never be 100% certain that any supplement is free from prohibited substances. Due to poor regulation of the industry, supplements companies are not required to prove that their products are safe, effective or even accurately labelled.
ASADA has issued a number of warnings about Higenamine and supplements more broadly, including advice that up to 1 in 5 Australian supplements contain prohibited substances, often not listed on labels.
To reduce their risk of testing positive, ASADA recommends athletes consider not taking supplements at all, or if required, that they choose low-risk products which have been batch tested by an independent auditing company.
