Poland’s roster for the 2019 World Championships taking place in Gwangju, Korea was just published this week and National Record holder Pawel Juraszek was among the 22-strong lineup.
However, the 24-year-old 50m freestyle ace almost missed out on competing at the world’s biggest aquatic competition outside of the Olympic Games, with Juraszek having tested positive for a banned substance this past March.
Per Polish media, Juraszek tested positively for pseudoephedrine, a medicine used for colds, at the Grand Prix in Lublin back in March. Per the WADA rules, athletes are able to take the substance as long as the amount does not exceed 150 μg / ml. For Juraszek, he reportedly exceeded the allowed amount by 13%.
At the time, Juraszek said, “I had an ordinary runny nose. There is no chance of being anywhere above acceptable norms. And here it turned out that I did it by 13 percent. I took 240 mg of pseudoephedrine. This amount is allowed, but later it turned out that its concentration in the urine sample was too large.
“I have no idea how this result came out. Maybe I was dehydrated or the liver acted differently?”
Flash forward to today, however, and we now know that Juraszek’s having been named to the roster despite this doping case is because he won an appeal to Poland’s Anti-Doping regulatory body, POLADA. This means he indeed will be able to compete in Gwangju.
Per Juraszek’s Facebook post, “The appeal that I submitted to the Polish Anti-Doping Agency has been positively resolved, therefore, together with coach Andrzej Wojtal, we will participate in this year’s World Championships in Korea.
“My participation in the World Championships has been approved by both the Polish Anti-Doping Agency POLADA, the Polish Swimming Association, and the World Swimming Federation FINA.
“I would like to thank you for the quick and reliable operation of POLADA and the Polish Swimming Association, which enabled me to take part in the second, after the Olympics, the most important sport event in the swimming world.
Thank you for the support you have shown me during this difficult time for me.”
Juraszek will be competing in the men’s 50m freestyle individual race in which he holds the fastest time ever for Poland in 21.45 from 2018’s Nationals.
When I have one of these “banned substances” in my general medicine cabinet, I feel like something is wrong
It’s not like it’s completely banned, just a limit on concentration in blood. But I get your point
Pseudoephedrine is literally Sudafed though.
I’m all in for clean sports, but it seems that some of these regulations need to be re evaluated…
Cold meds?? Mad Cox for drinking water from the tap…Kirra Toussaint on Chinese beef… I mean…
Cox had .001 and was banned and he has 13% and still gets to compete that’s what’s wrong
This is a good point. The whole thing is a mess. Many false positives and many false negatives.
Toussaint had a false positive.
Seems suspicious but 13% is really nothing