In July 2016 World Rugby has reported an anti-doping rule violation against the Uruguayan rugby player Gonzalo Campomar Santamaria after his sample tested positive for the prohibited substance Stanozolol. After notification a provisional suspension was ordered. The Athlete filed a statement with evidence in his defence and he was heard for the World Rugby Judicial Committee.
The Athlete requested for a reduced sanction, denied the intentional use of any product containing the prohibited substance and stated he had only used a Supplement P6 Extreme, a legal natural testosterone booster, between March and May 2016. He purchased this Supplement from ‘a player’s friend’ after he suffered from a rugby injury and underwent surgery in June 2015. The Athlete assumed that the main component in the Supplement (Tribulus Atatus Extract) is the source of the positive test. Also he argued that the Supplement may be contaminated by androgenic-anabolic steroid referring to medical literature.
World Rugby argued that the Athlete’s conduct was reckless, he failed to produce hard evidence in support of his statement and neither that the anti-doping violation was unintentional. The Athlete didn’t demonstrate a link between the Supplement and the Substance due to the ‘testosterone booster’ the Athlete didn’t test positive for Testosterone nor did he prove that the supplement was contaminated.
The Judicial Committee agrees that the Athlete didn’t provide reliable and probative forensic evidence which supported his that his Supplement was likely to have been contaminated and neither did he produce evidence which scientifically indicated the P6 Extreme could be linked to the substance Stanazolol. The Committee finds it more likely that the anabolic steroid was ingested independently of the Supplement.
Therefore the World Rugby Judicial Committee decides on 10 October 2016 to impose an 4 year period of ineligibility on the Athlete starting on the date of the provisional suspension, i.e. on 5 July 2016.
REVISION
Hereafter in October 2016 the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) informed World Rugby that the Uruguayan rugby player Gonzalo Campomar Santamaria previously had committed an anti-doping rule violation and was sanctioned for 18 months on 22 February 2013 by the Organización Nacional de Antidopaje del Uruguay (NADO Uruguay) after he tested positive for the prohibited substance Ephedrine.
In spite of the Athlete's objections the Judicial Committee rules that it has jurisdiction to amend the sanction for the Athlete's second anti-doping rule violation.
Therefore the World Rugby Judicial Committee decides on 20 February 2017 to amend its decision of 10 October 2016 and to increase the period of ineligibility from 4 to 8 years starting on the date of the provisional suspension, i.e. on 5 July 2016.
