Brookes rowing pair banned for taking modafinil and cocaine

Two rowers have been caught taking banned substances after competing for Brookes Boat Club at the Ghent International Regatta in May this year.

Timothy Grant, 22, and Sybren Hoogland, 21, were tested by the National Anti-Doping Organisation in competition, and Grant tested positive for modafinil while Hoogland tested positive for a metabolite of cocaine.

Both drugs are found in the Anti-Doping Code’s prohibited list 2015.

Both athletes, along with Brookes Boat Club, received formal anti doping education earlier this year, and despite that chose to ignore the warnings causing a two year long ban from all sports for both of them.

They will be unable to compete again until 2017.

Andy Parkinson, the chief executive of British Rowing and former head of UK Anti – Doping said: “We strongly believe in the fight against doping at all levels of our sport and we are committed to keeping our sport clean through on-going and extensive education programmes related to doping.

“While we accept both rowers did not take performance enhancing substances, this is a wake-up call for all aspiring rowers in the UK.”

Current chief executive of UKAD, Nicola Sapstead added: “Hoogland and Grant are young athletes who clearly made the wrong choices in their personal lives.

“The consequences of those choices is that they have damaged their sporting careers and their reputations.

“Both athletes have been through extensive anti-doping education but their decisions to ignore the advice they were given has resulted in two year bans from all sport.”