Sprinter Says She Had U.S. Drug Sources : Issajenko Claims Supply Came From San Gabriel Doctor, Shotputter Oldfield

Reading excerpts from a diary that she kept throughout her track career, Canadian sprinter Angella Taylor Issajenko provided even more detail Monday than her coach, Charlie Francis, had in previous testimony about her extensive use of anabolic steroids and other banned substances.

Among those who provided her with performance-enhancing drugs were two Americans, shotputter Brian Oldfield of San Jose and Dr. Robert Kerr of San Gabriel, she told the Canadian government’s commission of inquiry into drug use by athletes on the ninth day of testimony concerning track and field.

Issajenko, the first athlete on the witness stand after eight days of testimony by Francis, said that she was given steroids on two occasions in 1981 by Oldfield and that she received prescriptions for human growth hormone and steroids in 1983 from Kerr.

Except for Ben Johnson, world record-holder in the 100 meters, Issajenko, 30, is the most prominent of the 13 members of Francis’ club who, he testified, were using steroids. Steroids are banned by the International Olympic Committee and the International Amateur Athletic Federation, which governs track and field.

Born in Jamaica but a Toronto resident since 1975, Issajenko holds the Canadian record in the 100 and the 200, won a silver medal in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics in the 400-meter relay and twice was ranked fourth in the world in the 100.

Although she was tested for drugs on several occasions after meets, she never tested positive. But she promised that she would be candid with the commission, telling the Toronto Sun late last year that her testimony would be “like a nuclear bomb exploding.” After the explosion caused by Francis’ revelations, however, her recollections Monday seemed to be just more fallout.

She is expected to continue her testimony today.

Issajenko corroborated Francis’ testimony that she began using steroids in 1979, two years before any other members of his club. But he either was not aware of or did not tell the truth about the large dosages that she was taking and the potentially harmful side effects that she felt.

Although he seemed to endorse the use of steroids in small dosages and under a doctor’s supervision, she apparently was not so cautious, experimenting with a myriad of drugs in varying dosages, and suffered for it, developing hypoglycemia, low blood sugar.

As testified to earlier by Francis, Issajenko was motivated to begin using steroids in 1979 because she felt her competition had an edge that she could not overcome naturally.

With a reputation for diligence in training--she scolded herself in her diary because she took off one Christmas Eve--she said that Francis told her that she would be able to recover from workouts quicker, enabling her to work even harder, if she were on a steroid program.

She said that she began to listen after her first trip in 1979 to East Germany, where she competed against Marlies Gohr, former world record-holder in the 100, and Marita Koch, former world record-holder in the 200.

“I wanted to be like them,” she said. “I wanted to run as fast as them.”

She said that she was further convinced after the 1979 World Cup in Montreal, where she finished fifth in the 100 and the 200.

“That was great, considering it was my first full year of track and field (after high school),” she said. “But I was written up in the newspapers as a disappointment. They expected me to beat Evelyn Ashford and Marlies Gohr.

“I decided that being the Canadian champion wasn’t enough. It didn’t mean anything. I had to go out there and beat the world. I thought that if I went on an anabolic program, that would give me the edge that I needed.”

An unidentified Toronto doctor prescribed an oral steroid, Dianabol, for her in October, 1979, she said. But after the pharmaceutical company quit manufacturing it, she said that her supply was virtually exhausted when she arrived in Furth, West Germany, in May of 1981 for a meet.

According to her diary, Oldfield gave her another oral anabolic steroid, Anavar, to supplement her Dianabol on May 31. Oldfield was the first man to put the shot over 75 feet, but it was not accepted as a world record because he did it while competing as a professional.

“It was assumed that the throwers were on steroids,” Issajenko said. “Charlie and I went to him, and he had Anavar and some injectables.”

Five days later, still in Furth, she said that Oldfield injected her with 150 milligrams of a mixture of two extra-strength steroids, Primabolin and Decadurabolin, and a naturally-produced male hormone, testosterone.

“I don’t want to blame it all on him,” she said. “I asked for it. He had it. He gave it to me.”

In a telephone interview from San Jose, Oldfield, 43, denied any knowledge of Issajenko or the subject of steroids.

“I have no idea what she’s talking about,” he said. “I don’t know anyone named Chenko. I can’t believe this.”

Told the specific drugs that Issajenko named, Oldfield said: “The terms you’re using are news to me. I never used steroids. I didn’t need to. I had large parents.”

Later in the summer of 1981, Issajenko said, she also received a testosterone injection from a Canadian shotputter, Bishop Dolegiewicz, whom Francis has named as an occasional supplier of drugs to his athletes. Dolegiewicz, who coaches in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, has been instructed by his attorney not to comment until after the former shotputter testifies before the commission.

Issajenko said that she wrote to Kerr and asked for an appointment in September, 1983, after reading about him in a Toronto newspaper. He sent her a copy of his book, “The Practical Use of Anabolic Steroids With Athletes,” and confirmed her appointment for Oct. 11.

“He’d written this book, and he seemed to be the big steroid guru in America,” she said.

Entered into evidence was a letter given to her upon her arrival at Kerr’s San Gabriel office by his secretary. It listed numerous potential side effects of steroid use, including liver toxicity and kidney pathology, and advised her to contact the doctor if she noticed any of them.

“If you have pondered the above warnings and still feel that, dangerous side effects aside, the use of these medicines will enhance your needs, then sign and have witnessed this statement,” the letter read. “If unsure, then don’t take any medicine of which you are unsure!”

Issajenko said that she signed the letter but did not read it because she already was aware of potential side effects from other literature.

She said that Kerr prescribed human growth hormone, a naturally produced substance from human pituitary glands that was extracted from cadavers, and a steroid, Anavar, took her blood pressure and performed a blood test.

Kerr, 53, was not available for comment Monday. Asked earlier this month by The Times if he had treated Issajenko, Kerr said, “I can’t talk about that. It’s privileged.”

He added: “I really don’t even remember seeing her. I don’t remember the situation at all.”

He also revealed that he has been asked to testify before the commission in mid-April, but he said that Issajenko’s treatment will not be the primary topic of his testimony.

Eight days after she returned from California, Issajenko said, she asked a Toronto physician, Dr. Jamie Astaphan, who now lives on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts, to monitor her health but that she continued at least temporarily to rely on Kerr’s advice concerning her drug program.

When she began to suffer from hypoglycemia in February, 1984, she said that Kerr advised her that if she insisted on continuing her use of human growth hormone, she should take small dosages over a short period of time and consult a doctor. She said that she had no further contact with Kerr.

Hypoglycemia was the most serious of the side effects caused by performance-enhancing substances, she said. But she testified that she believed injuries to her hamstrings and tendons through the years resulted from her use of steroids and testosterone too soon before competitions and that she also noticed personality changes, including aggressive behavior.

Francis had testified previously that he was not aware of any side effects suffered by Issajenko, but said that he believed she was using drugs in small dosages. On the contrary, she said that she sometimes took drugs in dosages that would better have suited power lifters.

“Those are the mistakes one makes,” she said.