Mellouli banned for drugs, stripped of world title
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
SPORT'S top court yesterday stripped Tunisian swimming champion Oussama Mellouli of the 800 metres freestyle world championship gold medal he won in March because of a doping offence.
The Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said it had partially upheld an appeal by the International Swimming Federation (Fina) against an allegedly lenient ruling by Tunisia's national swimming association, after Mellouli tested positive for amphetamines in November 2006.
Tunisia's swimming federation (FTN) ruled in March 2007 that Mellouli had not taken the drug to knowingly enhance his swimming performance during a swimming event in Indianapolis, United States.
It sanctioned him with a reprimand and a warning.
Mellouli claimed the positive result was due to him taking an "Adderall" pill two days earlier so he could stay awake to finish writing a university paper.
Fina appealed to CAS against the Tunisian decision, seeking a full two-year suspension which would have ruled Mellouli out of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
In a statement, CAS said they were "surprised by the lack of perspicacity" on Mellouli's part in taking the drug so soon before a swimming event.
However, "if the swimmer was indeed guilty of negligence, such negligence was not sufficiently serious to suspend him for two years," the court added.
Instead, CAS decided to suspend Mellouli for 18 months, and stripped him of all results obtained since November 30, 2006, including those in the Melbourne World Swimming Championships in March 2007.
The suspension will apply retrospectively from November 30, 2006 until May 29, 2008, just over two months before the Beijing Olympic Games begin on August 8, a CAS spokesman said.
At the March 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, Mellouli came from behind to beat Poland's Przemyslaw Stancyzk and Australia's Craig Stevens to win the 800-metres freestyle with a personal best of seven minutes 46.95.AFP
The Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said it had partially upheld an appeal by the International Swimming Federation (Fina) against an allegedly lenient ruling by Tunisia's national swimming association, after Mellouli tested positive for amphetamines in November 2006.
Tunisia's swimming federation (FTN) ruled in March 2007 that Mellouli had not taken the drug to knowingly enhance his swimming performance during a swimming event in Indianapolis, United States.
It sanctioned him with a reprimand and a warning.
Mellouli claimed the positive result was due to him taking an "Adderall" pill two days earlier so he could stay awake to finish writing a university paper.
Fina appealed to CAS against the Tunisian decision, seeking a full two-year suspension which would have ruled Mellouli out of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
In a statement, CAS said they were "surprised by the lack of perspicacity" on Mellouli's part in taking the drug so soon before a swimming event.
However, "if the swimmer was indeed guilty of negligence, such negligence was not sufficiently serious to suspend him for two years," the court added.
Instead, CAS decided to suspend Mellouli for 18 months, and stripped him of all results obtained since November 30, 2006, including those in the Melbourne World Swimming Championships in March 2007.
The suspension will apply retrospectively from November 30, 2006 until May 29, 2008, just over two months before the Beijing Olympic Games begin on August 8, a CAS spokesman said.
At the March 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, Mellouli came from behind to beat Poland's Przemyslaw Stancyzk and Australia's Craig Stevens to win the 800-metres freestyle with a personal best of seven minutes 46.95.AFP
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