British Cyclist Andy Hastings Tests Positive for Winstrol and Primobolan – Blames Contaminated Syringe Given to Him by Bodybuilder at Monster Gym in Cheshunt
10.12.2015

British Cyclist Andy Hastings Tests Positive for Winstrol and Primobolan – Blames Contaminated Syringe Given to Him by Bodybuilder at Monster Gym in Cheshunt

British cyclist Andy Hastings tested positive for two anabolic steroids during an in-competition anti-doping test administered at the 2015 Team Time Trial National Championship in Newark, Nottinghamshire on May 30, 2015. The United Kingdom Anti-Doping (UKAD) anti-doping tribunal suspended Hastings for a period of 4 years as a result.

Pharmacom Primobolan

Pharmacom Primobolan

Hastings tried to argue that he never knowingly used anabolic steroids. But Hastings struggled to find an explanation for how the anabolic steroids Primobolan Depot (methenolone enanthate) and Winstrol Depot (stanozolol) made their way into his body.

Hastings apparently told his cycling team one story. But told UKAD an entirely different story.

Hastings told his teammates and the Richardsons-Trek RT semi-professional cycling team that the steroids must have entered his body via a contaminated dietary supplement that he consumed.

“Andrew cannot account for the presence of these substances in his urine sample, however he advised UKAD that he believes the positive test was a result of a contaminated vitamin or protein recovery supplement brought from an online retailer,” according to a statement released by Richardsons-Trek RT.

Cyclist Andy Hastings

Cyclist Andy Hastings

However, Hastings told UKAD something entirely different. In fact, he told UKAD that he had ruled out contaminated dietary supplements as a potential cause of his adverse analytical finding (AAF).

“[Hastings] goes on to advise that since receiving the UKAD letter of 25 June 2015, he had researched all of the supplements he had taken and could identify none which could have been contaminated with the Prohibited Substances identified in the AAF,” according to the final decision of the national anti-doping panel. “He produced copy documentation market AH4 asserting that this contains details of the contents of all such supplements taken by him, evidence, he asserts, that none contain Prohibited Substances.”

Hastings found an alternative explanation for the steroid positive. He blamed the steroid positive on his use of a contaminated syringe he shared with a stranger at the “Monster Gym” in Cheshunt on February 17, 2015.

Hastings told UKAD that he had finished a workout at Monster Gym and was exhausted. He wanted to inject himself with an ampoule of Vitamin B-12 to give his some energy. The only problem was that he did not have any syringes in his duffle bag. He only had a clean needle and an Alcotip pre-injection swab.

Monster Gym Cheshunt

Monster Gym Cheshunt

Since Hastings had been a regular member at Monster Gym since 2005, he had become friends with the owner, Steve Collins. While he was having a protein shake in the gym cafe, Hastings saw the owner of the gym, Steve Collins, engaged in conversation with a group of bodybuilders. He joined them and explained his dire predicament of lacking all of the necessary injection equipment for his B-12 shot.

One of the bodybuilders, who was a stranger to Hastings, searched his gym bag and found a used syringe. He offered it to Hastings. Hastings examined the syringe and didn’t see any blood and concluded it was safe to use since it was probably only used for an intramuscular injection and not an intravenous one. And since the stranger knew the gym owner, Hastings felt the bodybuilder was someone he could trust. So, with the used and contaminated syringe and his own unused needle, Hastings proceeded to inject himself with vitamin B-12.

Hastings asserted “that the only sensible conclusion is that the AAF [involving Winstrol and Primobolan] is the result of his use of the contaminated syringe; that whilst he accepts that he was at fault in using the contaminated syringe, there was no intent on his part to take performance enhancing substances; and therefore the level of fault was such that it may properly be viewed as not significant.”

Monster Gym - bodybuilding

Monster Gym – bodybuilding

The UKAD called bullshit. Not only was sharing used and contaminated injection equipment a bonehead move that could have far more serious health consequences than the mere use of anabolic steroids, it was extremely unlikely such minute amounts of steroids would have triggered a steroid positive some three months later.

David Cowan, a professor at the Drug Control Centre at Kings College London, carefully entertained the theoretic possibility that the steroids in Hasting’s body were due to a contaminated syringe. Cowan accepted the possibility that one tenth of one milliliter of solution could have remained in the barrel or neck of the syringe. If the bodybuilder had used Primobolan Depot at a concentration of 100mg/ml and Winstrol Depot of a similar concentration of 100mg/ml, then the maximum amount of each would have been 10 milligrams.

“Finally, for the purposes of his analysis, Professor Cowan assumes that the amount of the methenolone enanthate and stanozolol remaining in the claimed syringe given to the Respondent, which could have been co-injected with Vitamin B12, would have been 10 milligrams of each on the footing that the maximum volume remaining in the syringe after its previous use was one tenth of a millilitre.”

But in Cowan’s professional opinion, it was practically impossible for a mere 20 total milligrams on synthetic steroids to remain detectable in a urine sample after 100 days. Hastings claimed the contaminated injection took place on February 17, 2015. The urine sample was collected on May 30, 2015. The steroids would have long since cleared Hasting’s body by then.

The UKAD showed no leniency for Hastings. He has been suspended for 4 years. He has been kicked off the Richardsons-Trek RT cycling team. He will no longer be a Reflex Nutrition sponsored athlete. Hastings will not be eligible to return to the sport of cycling until May 30, 2019.

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