The track and field has come to a standstill as the teenage prodigy Issam Asinga faced a ban order from AIU that will keep him away from competitive tracks for the upcoming four years. The debate is still around the heaviness of the penalty that will axe him for the most valuable part of his track and field life. Furthermore, Issam Asinga will be stripped of his U20 world record in 100m and the titles he earned last year in competitive races. In such a situation, he has two-way outs to get a breather. The first one is to challenge the order in the Court of Arbitration for Sport and keep his side clear. Another is to chase Gatorade whose Gummies landed him in the crisis. 

As per the report, Issam Asinga has already taken up the first route as his attorney Paul J. Greene knocked on the door of COAS. Now, as far as the second path is concerned, Issam is in the mood to try that as well. According to a report published by ESPN. com, the 19-year-old wants to find out the root of the situation where the questioned Gummies held the banned element GW1516, whereas, on other batched products, the element was missing. Issam does not want to lose the battle as he has said, “I want to find out. I want to know what happened. I want to know how it got to this point.” However, the situation came into force with many branches. 

The prime objection is toward two unsealed containers of the Gatorade Recovery Gummies, collected from Issam Asinga. As per the available report, the Gummies contained the performance-enhancing elements GW1516 sulfone and GW1516 sulfoxide. Both are banned in WADA’s list. However, the points that went against Issam were that the level of the said elements remained higher on the outer surface than on the inner core. Therefore, the side of manufacturing contamination that Issam Asinga brought to the fore in saving his side couldn’t stand. But the track and field community remained skeptical to see another thing. 

The manufacturing ingredients of Gatorade Recovery Gummies are NSF-certified for the sports certificate. Furthermore, the Lausanne anti-doping laboratory gave a negative result after tasting the same batched sealed jar. Such results could lead to only a foul play from either side- Issam Asinga or Gatorade. Now, the Surinamese prodigy’s steps are showing that he is following the same route that another world champion once did. 

Issam Asinga keeps no stone unturned to bring back his glory 

10 years back, Jamaican track and field star Asafa Powell had to go through almost a similar experience. At that time, he had been handed an 18-month ban because of consuming oxilofrine, a prohibited element. His training partner, Sherone James, had also been treated similarly for consuming the same element. However, the duo repeatedly argued over the penalty as they said that the problem occurred because of contamination. They had consumed the legal supplement, Epiphany D1. But it was contaminated with the banned element. 

Asafa put a statement then, justifying his stand, “My team commissioned two private laboratories that confirmed that oxilofrine was present in the supplements, despite it not being listed as an ingredient on the bottle nor on its website.” Soon the situation culminated in a legal battle as the duo complained against the concerned company in court. At last, they found their solace as the company came to an out-of-court settlement. The situation improved as it came just before the Diamond League in 2015. The current situation is slowly heading that way. But it will be important to watch out who will win finally – Issam Asinga or Gatorade?