Kent Pantry - file

Should attorney Lennox Gayle be unable to complete the written judgments in the anti-doping hearings of sprinters Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson, because of possible legal troubles, it will have no effect on the panel being able to present the judgments within the specified period.

So says Kent Pantry, chairman of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel, yesterday, in reaction to news that Gayle, who chaired the panel hearing the cases against the Olympic athletes, was being sought by police.

"Detectives attached to the Organised Crime Investigation Division (OCID) are at this moment asking Attorney-at-Law Lennox Gayle to report to them immediately," said the statement released by the police yesterday.

"Mr Gayle is also being advised to report to the lawmen in the company of his attorney."

According to Mr Pantry, whatever legal issues Gayle faces has no bearing on his duties as chairman of the panel he led that included Peter Prendergast and Dr Japheth Forde. "He has an obligation to produce that judgment," Pantry said.

However, should Gayle be incarcerated or be somehow prevented from fulfilling his obligations any other member of the panel should be able to complete the document that is to be ready in three weeks. "The judgment is the panel's judgement,"

Pantry explained, adding that he had spoken to Gayle in the morning yesterday about the urgency of delivering the written judgment on the reasons why Powell and Simpson were each suspended for 18 months. Both athletes tested positive for the stimulant Oxilofrine following competition at the national championships in June 2013.