The World Anti-Doping Agency has warned Jamaica it risks expulsion from the next Olympics and other major competitions if it does not address failings highlighted by a former senior employee.

Wada director general David Howman urged the island's government to investigate claims by the former executive director of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission that its drugs-testing programme was completely inadequate.

Renee Anne Shirley accused Jamaica's politicians and administrators of ignoring her warnings that the positive tests returned by Asafa Powell and four other athletes were a "disaster" waiting to happen, saying: "They believe Jamaica does not have a problem."

Howman warned that if the country refused to take its responsibilities seriously, Wada could deem Jadco non-compliant with the Wada code, which could have dire consequences for the country's elite athletes – including world record-breaking sprinter Usain Bolt.

"Our normal approach if we have issues falling into the category of either complaint or concern is to try to work with the particular signatory and remedy it," Howman said.

"If nothing happens, we can ask our board to declare any of the signatories non-compliant and that has implications as to whether teams from the country would be admitted into various events.

"We report the non-compliance to people who can then consider whether other sanctions ought to follow. That would be the International Olympic Committee and International Association of Athletics Federations and so on."

Shirley went public with her concerns this week in an article for US magazine 'Sports Illustrated'. Howman said: "We were certainly concerned by the comments and would anticipate that the government and the agency itself would be appropriately responding.

"It's serious. And I think that if responsible people in Jamaica are looking at it then they will address it. If there's a lack of response then it's something that we at Wada would want to take up with the Jamaican government."

(© Daily Telegraph, London)

Irish Independent