NEW YORK — Surinamese sprinter Issamade Asinga sued the Gatorade Company on Wednesday (July 10), alleging his recent doping ban was the result of eating contaminated "recovery gummies" that the brand manufactured and provided.
Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) handed the 19-year-old Asinga a four-year suspension for a doping violation in May, stripping his two South American Championship gold medals and his under-20 100 metres world record.
In the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, Asinga said Gatorade provided him the gummies a year ago with packaging that claimed they were "NSF Certified for Sport" and therefore free from banned substances.
The lawsuit said the gummies lacked the certification, and instead "had been made using shoddy manufacturing processes, and were contaminated with trace amounts of an illegal performance-enhancing drug."
NSF is an independent, Michigan-based non-governmental organisation that certifies when products are free from substances banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Gatorade said in a statement provided to Reuters: "The product in question is completely safe and the claims made are false."
"Gatorade products are FDA compliant and safe for athlete consumption, which was validated by the findings of the Athletics Integrity Unit investigation," the beverage company said.
"Gatorade fully complied with the Athletics Integrity Unit investigation, including producing evidence that was accepted by the AIU that the gummies were not contaminated with the banned substance in their original ruling."
Asinga also claims that Gatorade provided a sealed bottle from a different lot of gummies to AIU, "creating the false impression that the testing of this exemplar was relevant to Issam's case."
Gatorade said that it provided a sealed container of gummies from the same lot after the AIU ruling and that the sample tested negative.
Asinga argues in his complaint that the banned drug, known as cardarine, would not have been detectable after that length of time.
The sprinter has not competed since he was handed a provisional suspension ahead of last year's World Championships in Budapest and is seeking economic damages for lost income, scholarship opportunities and future earnings.
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