Related case:
UKAD 2017 UKAD vs Joanna Blair
February 23, 2018
On 23 February 2018 the National Anti-Doping Panel (NADP) decide to impose a 4 year period of ineligibility on the Athlete Joanna Blair after she tested positive for the prohibited substance Metandienone.
In First Instance the Athlete admitted the violation and argued that the Metandienone entered her system through a contaminated creatine supplement as the London Lab had confirmed this fact after analysis of this supplement.
The First Instance Tribunal considered four possible explanations for how the prohibited substance came into this supplement:
- contamination during manufacture;
- introduction after the adverse analytical finding;
- introduction before the adverse analytical finding by a third party; and
- introduction before the adverse analytical finding by the Athlete.
After assessment these explanations were rejected by the Tribunal. Accordingly the First Instance Tribunal concluded that the Athlete failed to establish how the substance entered her system, nor that the violation was not intentional.
Hereafter in March 2018 the Athlete appealed the First Instance Tribunal decision with the Appeal Tribunal.
The Athlete argued that the decision of 23 February was erroneous because the evidence was rejected that showed that the creatine supplement had been contaminated during manufacturing. Also erroneous was the Athlete's requirement to prove how the creatine supplement became contaminated.
Considering the approach of the First Instance Tribunal the Appeal Panel concludes that this approach was not erroneous. Therefore the Appeal Panel decides on 30 July 2018 to dismiss the Athlete’s appeal and to uphold the decision of 23 February 2018.
