Jack vows to clear name
Drug-tainted swimmer Shayna Jack remains determined to clear her name after a briefing in Brisbane on her positive test to a banned substance.
The 20-year-old spent almost five hours with mother Pauline and lawyer Paul Horvarth, being briefed yesterday by Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (Asada) officials.
Jack is facing a four-year ban after testing positive to Ligandrol, a muscle growth agent, during an Australian swim camp last month ahead of the world championships in South Korea.
The freestyle specialist emerged from the briefing, vowing to fight the case.
‘‘I’m really happy with how everything’s going and I’m not going to stop until I’ve proved my innocence,’’ she said.
‘‘I’ll fight to get myself back in the pool because that’s my dream and I’m never going to let that go.’’
Jack and Horvarth were both asked what levels of Ligandrol had been found in her A and B samples, but did not provide an answer.
Jack, having denied knowingly taking the drug, refused to speculate on how it had been in her system.
‘‘It’s still an ongoing investigation so we can’t clear that with anyone at the moment,’’ she said.
‘‘We’re still looking into it but we’re not going to leave any stone unturned.’’
Asada is expected to provide correspondence to Jack’s legal team in four to six weeks outlining the case against her.
Horvarth said Jack had been ‘‘very honest to date’’ with officials.
Jack also played down suggestions she was at odds with Swimming Australia (SA), amid reports she had been told not to go public with the real reason she’d left the team before the world championships.
‘‘Swimming Australia has been nothing but supportive of me and we’ve been a unit through the whole process,’’ she said.
‘‘Every decision that we’ve made has been together and we are very happy with every decision that we’ve made.’’
SA chief executive Leigh Russell told reporters last weekend after Jack’s positive test became public knowledge that the governing body had been bound by confidentiality rules with Asada not to reveal the result of Jack’s initial A sample test.
Jack has already been banned from the rich International Swimming League after her positive result. Khadijah Mellah, the 18-year-old who won the Magnolia Cup charity race at Goodwood in England, is a teenager who has come a long way in a short time.
The journey from home in Peckham in south London to Goodwood in Sussex, via Brixton’s Ebony Horse Club and a crash course in thoroughbredriding at Charlie Fellowes’ Newmarket yard, has been a rapid one, and it was crowned in glory as she rode Haverland to victory on Thursday (NZ time).
But it was not without its struggles on the way for a young person who became the first hijab-wearing woman to ride in a competitive British horse race, let alone to win.
Growing up in south London, there were few obvious horse racing role models or pathways. Her brother Abdus, 16 – among the many supporters on Thursday and himself a would-be jockey – explained how they became perhaps unlikely, or at least unusual, racing competitors.
‘‘Our parents took us to a riding centre in Mottingham. We used to go maybe every three weeks, just to look at the horses and then, later, to ride them. Then my parents started taking Khadijah to Ebony Horse Club, and mum said, ‘Oh well, if she’s going there you might as well go too’.
‘‘I’ve been riding out at Charlie Fellowes’ yard as well with her this last few weeks. Who’s better? Me obviously! No, I’m joking. It’s amazing that she has won this.’’
His sister has become an overnight star, and there was a deluge of interest in her on Thursday, and a film coming up on ITV in the autumn called
AA bright, impressive woman who plans to study engineering at university, she appears to relish her new role.
‘‘From a young age, I have wanted to be the person that people look up to, and I have already started receiving other messages from Muslim girls. It makes me really happy to hear from all these people that I’m affecting positively.’’
She can certainly count Fellowes among her many new fans.