Related case:
UKAD 2017 RFU vs Brandon Staples
November 30, 2017
On 30 November 2017 the National Anti-Doping Panel (NADP) decided to impose a 4 year period of ineligibility on the Athlete after he tested positive for the prohibited substances Metandienone, Dehydrochlormethyltestosterone and Stanozolol.
Here the Athlete denied the intentional use of the prohibited substances and stated that the substances must haven been in the whey protein shake that he purchased from a Xtreme Nutrion shop in May 2017 while on holiday in South Africa.
Hereafter the Athlete appealed the decision with the NADP Appeal Tribunal. The Athlete introduced new evidence in this case and argued:
- The Panel erred in drawing advers inferences in respect of evidence that was not before it.
- The Panel erred (in principle) in finding that the Athlete had adduced ‘no evidence’ to demonstrate that the supplement he described was the source of the positive test.
- The Panel applied the wrong standard of proof in their decision.
The Appeal Panel considers the Athlete’s arguments and finds that the Tribunal made no error of principle in commenting on the lack of any corroborative evidence to bolster the Athlete’s evidence. Despite reservations over the deployment of the concentration levels without any expert evidence, they do not affect the Appeal Panel’s overall conclusion that there was here no error of principle by the Tribunal. It reached a conclusion which was undoubtedly open to it on the totality of the evidence.
Therefore the Appeal Panel decides on 16 April 2018 to dismiss the Athlete’s appeal.
