Scotland hammer thrower Mark Dry was banned for four years
over breach of doping rules, a move is says has “turned into his worst
nightmare” since February.
According to the BBC, the double Commonwealth Games medalist
has appealed to the athletics authorities for help in taking his anti-doping
case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).
“This is a huge miscarriage of justice, and it’s just
really disheartening. But I will not sit down on this and be bullied because
I’m poor,” said Dry.
Dry was initially cleared by a national anti-doping panel
after admitting to wrongfully claiming he had gone fishing on the day he missed
a drugs test in 2018.
However, he was subsequently banned after UK Anti-Doping
(Ukad) appealed against the decision, and he was found guilty of tampering.
His legal team argued the tribunal’s ruling was
“unfair” and “erroneous”, and that his punishment was
“grossly disproportionate”.
Dry has since contacted Scottish Athletics, UK Athletics
(UKA), the Athletics Integrity Unit and the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada)
asking for his case to be re-examined and taken to Cas.
But according to Ukad rules, an individual is unable to
appeal against appellate tribunals.
The Scot and his legal team have argued that this has
“the potential of violating athletes’ individual rights”, but he said
a lack of positive response suggested he had “no route to move forward,
it’s just disheartening”.
In April, UKA told Dry that his appeal had exhausted the
disciplinary process under its rules, and that it would be for World Athletics,
the AIU or Wada to consider the case.
Ukad chief executive Nicole Sapstead said Dry’s offence was
“a serious breach” and “undermines the anti-doping process which
athletes and the public depend on to have confidence in clean sport”.
“The tribunal operates independently from Ukad and brings
objective scrutiny to cases. The sanction was in accordance with the applicable
anti-doping rules,” she said.
Source: BBC Sports
