How do you like your eggs in the morning? If you’re Conor Benn in training camp, the answer is ‘a lot.’
With the idea of contamination now being floated by Benn’s team as the reason behind a banned substance being found in his system, it has been revealed by The Times that Benn was apparently eating ‘between 30 and 34 eggs a week.’
The young fighter’s efforts to clear his name and return to the sport without this cloud hanging over him has seen him working with both lawyers and scientists to gain more information around how and why clomifene was present in his system.
The Times story highlights work by the World Anti-Doping Agency that may just hint at the route Benn’s team are going down to claim innocence. The research can be accessed on their website, and was conducted to determine whether clomiphene residue could be found in meat and eggs.
“In order to protect the athletic community, a controlled administration study is planned, where clomiphene is administered to laying hens, and both the produced eggs as well as the edible tissue will be tested for residues of clomiphene.”
The study concluded that ‘poultry and eggs are a source of minute amounts of clomiphene in doping control samples.’ Going on that and that alone, Benn’s doping results could, in theory, be attributed to his diet.
However, and this could be an extremely important point, clomiphene is not authorised to use on animals in the UK – meaning the three to four dozen eggs the fighter was consuming per week would have had to be imported.
Benn is facing the fight of his life in convincing fans of his innocence. In his media interviews this week – the first time he has really spoken out about the situation – he confirmed that there have been two failed tests this year. This, paired with the hard stance the British Board of Control seem to be taking, makes his case increasingly tough to prove.
Could it all be down to eggs? And, perhaps more importantly, will the people who seem to have already made up their minds believe it if it is?