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More bad news about Nathan Baggaley.
Australian newspapers and websites are carrying the story about his arrest on serious drug charges. It seems that police stopped Baggaley and a companion in Mermaid Waters, northern NSW and on searching their car found "nearly 800 ecstasy tablets, an unspecified white powder, cannabis and cash".
Baggaley was already serving a two-year ban from competition having tested positive to two steroids - stanozolol and
methandienone - in 2005.
The International Canoe Federation had insisted on the full two-year ban, extending a fifteen month ban imposed by the Courat of Arbitration for Sport that would have expired in mid-January 2006. Baggaley had claimed to have ingested the drugs unknowingly from a bottle of juice stored in the fridge of his family home. Although these particular steroids are never used to treat injuries, Baggaley had claimed that his brother had been using them to treat an injured leg. The CSA had accepted the explanation; the ICF did not.
But the latest charges are far more serious. If they are proved, Baggaley faces not only a jail term but a life ban from any competitive sport under the World
Anti Doping Agency drugs code.
Clint Robinson, Baggaley's Olympic K2 silver medal partner, is quoted on ABC News as saying, "The first emotion I had was extreme sadness for Nathan himself, because I've never known Nathan... to be like that."
"He was just always one of those blokes who was damn hard to beat if I
got on the water against him or with him, and a real hard trainer, and
it was a very big shock to me."
See also:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200702/s1841573.htm
http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/olympian-faces-drug-charges/2007/02/06/1170524085424.html
http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=353775
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21184498-2702,00.html
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,21182836-3102,00.html
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