Related case:
IBU 2014 IBU vs Irina Starykh
July 14, 2014
On 14 July 2014 the IBU Anti-Doping Hearing Panel (ADHP) decided to impose a 2 year period of ineligibility on the Russian Athlete Irina Starykh after her samples - provided in December 2013 - tested positive for the prohibited substance recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO).
In November 2014 the accredited laboratory in Cologne re-analysed the Athlete samples - provided in January 2014 - and the analysis revealed the presence of rhEPO. The IBU notified the Athlete about this new anti-doping rule violation while she was already serving a 2 year period of ineligibility for her first anti-doping rule violation.
The Athlete filed a statement in her defence and waived her right to be heard for the ADHP. The Athlete submitted that in this case her samples (provided in January 2014) tested positive for the same reason as her samples (provided in December 2013) for which she was already sanctioned. She indicated that she had used injections (Laennec) for skin rejuvenation only which contained the prohibited substance.
The IBU requested the ADHP to impose an additional period of ineligibility on the Athlete and holds that these two violations must be considered as one single first anti-doping violation. The IBU contested that the Athlete failed to explain how the substance entered her system and neither did she demonstrate that she had used this cosmetic product or that it contained the prohibited substance.
The ADHP agrees that these violations must be considered as one single violation and finds that the Athlete has used EPO on multiple occasions in that period, constituting aggravating circumstances.
The ADHP concludes that there are grounds to impose a hypothetical sanction of 3 years and rules that the additional sanction, based on the hypothetical sanction, amounts to a 1 year period of ineligibility.
Therefore the ADHP decides on 30 June 2015 to impose an additional 1 year period of ineligibility on the Athlete starting on the date of expiration of the pending 2 year period of ineligibility, i.e. on 23 December 2015.
