The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) confirmed to Agence France-Presse (AFP) that tennis star Jannik Sinner’s doping case is not going to be resolved by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) earlier than the top of the 12 months.
“There will be no decision by year-end,” WADA Director General Olivier Niggli advised AFP in an interview.
Sinner, the world No. 1 from Italy, examined constructive twice for traces of the banned substance clostebol in March however was cleared to proceed competing.
An impartial tribunal, convened by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) on the finish of August, concluded that Sinner “bears no fault or negligence.” The ITIA accepted his clarification that the drug entered his system when his physiotherapist used a clostebol-containing spray to deal with a reduce earlier than administering therapeutic massage and sports activities remedy.
WADA has appealed the choice to clear the 23-year-old and is looking for a ban of as much as two years.
“It was considered in the decision that there was no fault on the part of Sinner. Our position is that there is still a responsibility of the athlete in relation to his entourage,” Niggli stated.
“So it’s this authorized level that shall be debated (earlier than CAS).
“We do not dispute the fact that it could have been a contamination. But we believe that the application of the rules does not correspond to the case law.”
While the ITIA was criticized for revealing late the constructive exams of Sinner and girls’s world No. 2 Iga Swiatek, Niggli believes “athletes must be protected.”
Swiatek final month accepted a one-month suspension after testing constructive for the guts treatment trimetazidine (TMZ) in an out-of-competition pattern in August 2024.
“Personally, I think that protecting an athlete’s reputation should be our first concern,” Niggli stated.
“We live in a world where social media is what it is and means that a reputation can go up in smoke in a very, very short time.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com