Ben Barker
The Directors and Management of Plymouth Gladiators Speedway wish to issue the following statement.
In order to be totally transparent and to clarify various rumours that are in the public domain; we would like to clarify the absence of Ben Barker from last night’s match at Oxford in the Championship Jubilee League.
Prior to the meeting, Ben was chosen at random for a statutory Alcohol and Drugs Test in line with SCB and BSPL procedures.
Ben’s test showed the presence of a banned substance. This test is at a basic level in terms of the results available to the Tester at the time of the test and will now be passed for further more detailed inspection and examination. This is commonly known as the “B Test”. As a result he was excluded from the meeting by the Referee for “medical reasons”
The Club do not condone illegal drug taking or alcohol abuse and excess in any way shape or form and support the authorities in this matter unequivocally.
However, the Club are aware and will provide evidence in support of Ben, that he is currently taking prescription drugs namely a strong dosage of Co-Codamol and Zapaine that contain elements of Morphine and which can cause an indication that banned elements are present in the urine test but under legitimate pain relief scenarios. There are many cases of this scenario in many sports over the years.
It is well documented that Ben has been recently injured and he is taking controlled legal drugs under prescription, which may be a factor in this matter.
We will await the results of the B Test before making any further comment and neither Ben nor the Club will make any further public comment until the full testing and information is complete.
The Club understands and supports the fact that Ben will be under a standard suspension from the Sport until the full B Test Results are known.
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We will be issuing a full meeting review and hope to have positive news regarding the injury to Alfie Bowtell and updates on the latest injury updates on Edward Kennett; Dan Gilkes, Michael Palm Toft , Hans Andersen and Harry McGurk tomorrow.
Mark Phillips
Promoter Plymouth Speedway
Image Credit: Jon Sproad