IRELAND'S Olympic camp was in some disarray yesterday with the news that Marie McMahon had tested positive for an illegal drug after running in the heats of the 5,000 metres last Friday.
The `A' sample tested on Monday, showed traces of Advil in her system and this was confirmed when the phial containing the `B' sample was tested yesterday morning.
The drug, more commonly known as Neurofen, an anti-inflammatory painkiller, is available over the counter. and is not considered to be one of the more serious drugs used illegally in sport.
As such, it is likely that she will be given the minimum suspension of three months by the IAAF when they sit in judgment on the case later in the week.
McMahon, who lives in the United States but comes from just outside Ennis, finished 14th of 15 starters in a disappointing time of 15 minutes nine seconds in her race and could scarcely be accused of taking a performance enhancing drug. She is the American national collegiate indoor 5,000 metres champion and finished 23rd in the world cross country championships in Cape Town in March.
Since Advil is included on the IAAF's list of proscribed drugs, however, a suspension is imperative. This is even more likely since she did not declare it on the list which all athletes are obliged to complete giving details of medication recently taken.
The only medication which McMahon is understood to have listed is Robitussin, a form of ephedrine, which is. sold as a cough mixture. "It was an entirely innocent mistake," she said. "I never believed I would test positive, otherwise I would never have taken them."
A BLE official said later that the athlete had taken the painkiller after sustaining a leg injury during her preparations for Atlanta, but omitted to tell anybody about it.
She was said to be very distressed after being given the news when Dr Commiskey, accompanied by" Nick Davis, manager of the track and field team, visited her room in the Olympic village at 8 a.m. yesterday morning.
Later a BLE spokesman complained about the manner in which the news was broken. "Marie was too upset to contact her parents and the first they knew of it was when they heard about it on television," he said.
"Only three people in the Irish section of the village knew about it at that stage
Dr Commiskey, Nick David and the president of the Olympic Council of Ireland, Pat Hickey and we'd like to know which of them was responsible for leaking the story.
He added that BLE `accepted' the findings of the IAAF test, but said that it would continue give McMahon every support. "It's a sad case of an illegal drug being swallowed innocently," he said. "By no stretch of the imagination can it be classified as performance enhancing but, since it is proscribed by the IAAF, it carries the penalty of suspension."
McMahon is the first athlete, from Co Clare to run in the Olympics since marathon runner Pat McMahon in 1968. She started running around her native Ennistymon at the age of 12, but later gave up for a couple of years.
She re-launched her career four years later and in September 1994 she followed several Irish athletes to Providence College, in the US, on a scholarship.
The only other Irish athlete to test positively was the long jumper Jonathan Kron who was banned for three months after taking another relatively harmless, but proscribed, drug in June 1995.
