USADA announced today that Robert Qualls, of Reno, Nev., an athlete in the sport of track and field, has accepted a three-year period of ineligibility for an anti-doping rule violation after testing positive for multiple prohibited substances.
Qualls, 72, tested positive for amphetamine and 19-norandrosterone (19-NA), a metabolite of nandrolone (19-nortestosterone) and other 19-norsteroids as the result of a urine sample collected at the USA Track & Field Masters 5km Championships on February 24, 2024. Additionally, Qualls’s urine sample was analyzed using a specialized test known as Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS), that unequivocally differentiates between anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) naturally produced by the body and AAS of synthetic origin. The IRMS analysis was consistent with the exogenous origin of testosterone and/or its metabolites in Qualls’s sample. USADA was contracted by event organizers to conduct testing and results management for the event and collected Qualls’s sample in accordance with the WADA International Standard for Testing.