Paul Edwards's Life Ban and the Test Record He Challenged

“I've been made a scapegoat to protect the system. I've never used drugs. I will carry on fighting. I will never give up,” Paul Edwards said after he was banned for life from athletics following a positive testosterone finding. He had previously received a four-year suspension after positive tests in 1994. Edwards denied using drugs and said faulty testing procedures caused the positive readings.

The earlier suspension had already removed him from competition. BBC reporting said Edwards was sent home from the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada, in 1994. Later reports by the BBC and The Independent said he tested negative on nearly 50 occasions over 10 years, a record cited in accounts of his challenge to the result from the out-of-competition test.

In July 1999, the Drug Advisory Committee wrote that it was not possible to make a quantitative assessment of the epitestosterone-to-testosterone ratios because no calibration data had been provided. The Basingstoke Gazette later reported that a witness statement from Roger Draper said he had not carried out standard checks on the sample at collection and could not confirm exactly what he did with the sealed samples after leaving Edwards's home.

Edwards hired a private detective to examine the records of the urine sample's whereabouts, The Telegraph reported. In 2000, the Metropolitan Police were investigating his claim that paperwork for the drug test contained irregularities. The Telegraph also reported that lawyers sought an adjournment in chambers in London because of the police inquiry.

Court papers from Edwards's 2013 High Court action were reported by the Basingstoke Gazette to say that the samples' whereabouts could not be accounted for during more than 24 hours before they reached the laboratory. The Gazette reported that the claim was dismissed on a legal technicality relating to time limits; the scientific questions were not examined on their merits.