UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) has responded to the news that the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has cleared world champion Lizzie Armitstead of a whereabouts rule violation. UKAD were consulting lawyers but said that they 'respected' the outcome of the case and that they were awaiting the reasoned decision. Strict conditions mean that further appeal to the CAS from UKAD would be unlikely to be accepted.
Armitstead had been under investigation from UKAD due to three missed tests and was provisionally suspended last month, though the suspension was not made public. The reigning world champion faced up to a four-year suspension, but she appealed to the CAS stating that that proper procedure had not been followed in the first test in August 2015. The CAS agreed and declared the first test null and void, therefore allowing Armitstead to return to racing and compete at the Olympic Games.
"We respect the outcome of the CAS hearing against Elizabeth Armitstead," UK Anti-Doping Chief Executive Nicole Sapstead said in a statement issued on Tuesday morning. “When UKAD asserts a Whereabouts Failure against an athlete, the athlete has the opportunity to challenge the apparent Whereabouts Failure through an external Administrative Review, before it is confirmed. Only when three Whereabouts Failures are confirmed is the case then put through an independent review to determine whether the athlete has a case to answer for a violation of Article 2.4 of the World Anti-Doping Code.
"Ms Armitstead chose not to challenge the first and second Whereabouts Failures at the time they were asserted against her. At the CAS hearing, Ms Armitstead raised a defence in relation to the first Whereabouts Failure, which was accepted by the Panel. We are awaiting the Reasoned Decision from the CAS Panel as to why the first Whereabouts Failure was not upheld."
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UKAD also defended the decision to keep the investigation out of the public domain. "It is important to note that we will not publicly disclose provisional suspensions, or disclose details of cases, until an anti-doping rule violation has deemed to have been committed, at which point information will be published on our website. This is to ensure that the rights and privacy of everyone involved are respected and to ensure the case is not unnecessarily prejudiced."
Upholding the 'integrity' of the process
The statement released by Armitstead cited an administration error but did not elaborate much further other than to say that the missed test was as a “result of UKAD not following proper procedure nor fully attempting to make contact with me despite clear details being provided under 'whereabouts'.”
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