WALKER'S DILEMMA WILL RUN AND RUN

THERE are two things worth spelling out immediately about the latest
drugs scandal blighting British athletics. Firstly, that were Dougie
Walker a surly working-class black sprinter from Brixton rather than
an amiable middle-class Scot from a douce Edinburgh public school, he
would unquestionably not have been treated with such kid-gloves and
hush-hush mentality as displayed by his national federation last
week. And secondly, that whatever the layers of smoke-screen and
obfuscation devised by Walker's defence team to fight his positive
dope tests, he's already joined the long list of sporting competitors
whose name is inextricably linked with cheating.

Yet in many aspects, this case could prove a watershed in the history
of the hormone monsters, because Walker's demise, however temporary,
has revealed the plethora of regulations, contradictory advice, mixed
messages and plain stupid discrepancies which infest the gamut of
recreational activities, which used to be regarded as trivial
pursuits. Now we know all about Creatine and Nor-19, the former a
legal substance according to the much-maligned International Olympic
Committee, the latter not, regardless of the fact that both
supplements are produced by the company Maximuscle, and are available
by mail order {on an 0800 number} or via the Internet.

We are further aware that Walker did employ Creatine in the course of
preparing for his 200-metres triumph in last summer's European
Championships, and that his picture graces the cover of a 96-page
booklet promoting the sale of Creatine - and the banned product. But
there again, so what? His British colleague, Colin Jackson, has
revealed publicly that he enjoyed "excellent results" from using
Creatine, while the England football squad and a number of high-
profile rugby internationalists, including Welsh captain Rob Howley,
Ireland's Conor O'Shea and Scotland's Tony Stanger, also figure among
suitors queuing up for tickets to the Creatine party.

Yet amazingly, virtually nothing is known about the possible side
effects of either it or, probably more worryingly, Nor-19, which makes
the ambiguity over what should and shouldn't be permitted in sport one
of the great moral dilemmas of our age. Gastro-intestinal upset,
muscle cramping and dehydration have been cited as problems by some
Creatine users, and the drug was implicated in the deaths of three
college wrestlers last year, "before being subsequently cleared", the
British Medical Journal reported. "None the less, consumers have been
warned to consult a doctor prior to using it, and scientists are
investigating whether a link exists between the supplement and the
development of seizures and brain tumours."

Bad enough, one might suppose. But Nor-19 - which contains the steroid
derivative androstenedione - is potentially worse. Whereas the
anabolic steroid, testosterone, is available on prescription only,
androstenedione can be easily purchased. In large doses, anabolic
steroids have been implicated in causing liver cancers, aggressive
behaviour, gynaecomastia and testicular atrophy. Doctors are
increasingly concerned that the steroid derivative may be just as
deadly. But one substance is banned, and the other isn't. Surely this
is the stuff of which nightmares are made.

Or at least it might be for those in the medical profession.

The trouble is that, whatever caused Walker to fall foul of the
testers, the rewards for international success are so enormous in the
modern world that the old guidelines have ceased to apply. Might we be
inching towards a scenario where anything goes at the Olympics, the
Super Bowl, the World Cup...whatever? And would most spectators
honestly care if every competitor was allowed to gorge themselves on
whatever substances they liked as long as records were shattered and
new milestones posted? Few people in the US complained, for instance,
when baseball home-run specialist Mark McGwire disclosed he was
consuming Creatine and androstenedione. The IOC remain adamantly
opposed to any relaxation of the rules, but if the alternative is a
further rash of litigation and damaging publicity, the clamour will
mount, not for blood tests which are thoroughly impractical, but for
the sanctioning of lab-rat Games.

You doubt that? Well, if anyone can persuade me of the safety or
ethical purity of Creatine, a product specifically designed to boost
muscular tissue, stamina, energy, strength and performance (or so
Maximuscle proclaims) they will be faring better than Dr Mark Harries,
medical adviser to the British Olympic Association, who confesses that
he has little idea why Creatine is lauded where steroids are reviled.
"We at the BOA certainly don't recommend the supplement, and the whole
thing is crazy at the moment. Some athletes are consuming the
equivalent of 20 pounds of meat a day, and that is ludicrous because
the body could never produce that much Creatine in its natural form,"
he says.

"Worse still, this stuff hasn't been around long enough for us to
assess the downside. Normally when a new drug comes on the market, we
would test it for 20 or 30 years to find out the side effects,
discover those folk who were vulnerable to it, and work out exactly
what constituted a safe dose. But as things stand, sportsmen and
sports-women are shoving 20 grams of Creatine down their throats every
day without considering how their bodies will react once they retire.

"Ultimately, I can't tell you it should be banned. That's not in my
jurisdiction. But I wouldn't take it myself, and I wouldn't advise
anyone else to do so. Yet it's just as the late Ron Pickering
predicted - once TV money comes along and Mr {Rupert} Murdoch starts
waving his chequebook in the direction of athletics or rugby, the
youngsters don't think what might go wrong. At 18 you never think
you'll be 35 one day. That's what's fuelling this duplicity between
the manufac-turers and buyers."

The concern must be that some of those teenagers gobbling up their
1060gm tubs of Creatine - 7000ES (price GBP 39.99) won't see 35.
Either their bodies will malfunction after years of overdosing, or
they will graduate to Nor-19 or even worse substances with fatal
consequences. Maybe that will be the prevailing legacy of the Walker
affair: that regardless of the Scot's innocence or guilt, we have seen
the full extent of the Creatine regime. And from there, it's one small
step to the really hard stuff.