In March 2017 World Rugby has reported an anti-doping rule violation against the rugby player Adrian Gabriel Chiper after his sample tested positive for the prohibited substance 19-norandrosterone (Nandrolone). After notification a provisional suspension was ordered. The Athlete filed a statement in his defence and he was heard for the World Rugby Judicial Committee.
The Athlete admitted the violation, denied the intentional use and was unaware that there was anti-doping information on the internet neither that steroids were prohibited. He stated that he had purchased the substance as medication on the internet as treatment for his knee injury. He acknowledged that he didn’t report his injury to the team officials and failed to mention his medication on the Doping Control Form. He only discussed his medication with his team doctor after de sample collection.
World Rugby contended that the Athlete failed to demonstrate that the violation was not intentional nor how the substance entered his system. It requested the Committee for the imposition of a 4 year period of ineligibility.
On the balance of probabilities, the Judicial Committee is skeptical about the Athlete’s statement. The Committee holds that to self-diagnose and to self-treat a knee injury in the sport of rugby, based on advice from Google, is difficult to understand. The Committee finds it difficult to accept the Athlete’s version how the prohibited substance entered his system. While not absolutely essential to proving that the violation was unintentional, any question about the source of the prohibited substance severely undercuts the Athlete’s case on this point.
Therefore the World Rugby Judicial Committee decides on 20 August 2018 to impose a 4 year period of ineligibility on the Athlete starting on the date of the provisional suspension, i.e. on 10 November 2017.
