Former Black Fern banned for drug use
A New Zealand Rugby judicial committee has dismissed a former Black Fern halfback’s claim that she bought a banned substance to lose body fat and get lean, but did not take it.
Zoey Berry, who played 12 years of representative rugby for Canterbury and had one cap for the Black Ferns on the England tour in 2012, has been banned for four years after purchasing Clenbuterol.
She insisted at a judicial committee hearing last month that she did not take the drug after a Clenbuterol user she asked to taste it for her claimed it was ‘‘bad quality’’.
However, the judicial committee - chaired by Barry Paterson QC - did not accept Berry’s explanations, saying, as a halfback, ‘‘it is difficult to see that there would be much need to lose weight’’.
Evidence was given that Berry, now 30, withdrew from the Black Ferns programme and the Canterbury representative team in 2013 and gave up club rugby before the 2014 season.
However, she played sevens for Canterbury from 2012 to 2014 and took part in the national sevens tournament between 2012 and January 2015 and re-registered as a club rugby player in Canterbury in March 2015.
Berry told the judicial hearing she was aware Clenbuterol was on the prohibited list and had had been to doping education seminars as a player.
She bought a 20m bottle of Clenbuterol after first inquiring on February 24, 2015.
Berry gave evidence that she was not playing rugby at the time and did not intend to play again.
She said she wanted to lose body fat and see how lean she could get. She had an exercise, science and nutrition qualification and was interested to see if Clenbuterol would have any significant effect when combined with diet and exercise programmes.
Berry told the hearing she had not used Clenbuterol at the time of purchase as she was not sure it would be the safest thing to put into body.
She asked a past Clenbuterol user, who she would not name, to taste the drug for her.
‘‘That person told her it was bad quality and she then threw it away in late March 2015,’’ the judicial committee judgement said.
However, the committee did not accept Berry’s explanations.
‘‘At the time she placed the order, she had recently played in two sevens tournaments and no doubt would have been relatively fit,’’ the committee’s judgement said.
‘‘Her position in the 15-aside game was as halfback. It is difficult to see that there would be much need to lose weight in February
2015.
‘‘It is also difficult to accept that having purchased the Clenbuterol she was not in the circumstances of intending to use it.
‘‘Her refusal to say who told her about the Clenbuterol and who tested it for her and her decision not to call that person as a witness does not assist her.
‘‘It is also difficult to accept that a person can determine that the Clenbuterol was of bad quality merely by tasting it.’’
The committee was ‘‘comfortably satisfied that Ms Berry used the Clenbuterol and that she therefore committed the violation alleged’’.
It ruled Berry could not rely on the ‘‘timely admission provision’’, which cold have led to a reduced ban.
Her four-year ban ends on July
31, 2021.