Fight Against Doping -- No Money in England

Britain still lacks funding for a new National Anti-Doping Agency. (Getty Images)British Anti-Doping Agency Unfunded

Amid all the multi-million pound allocations of sports funding made by U.K. Sport this week, one element on which no decision has yet been reached is the money to pay for Britain's independent anti-doping agency.

As reported by ATR earlier this week, HM Treasury has yet to approve the $3 million costs of transferring the responsibilities from U.K. Sport - which has been in charge of drug testing in Britain for the last 20 years - and a $12 million annual budget for the new National Anti-Doping Agency (NADO).

Tuesday's U.K. Sport board meeting was the latest deadline missed for securing the cash, with sources close to the project predicting that any further delays would mean that NADO would miss its October 2009 launch date, and therefore would not be fully operational in time for the 2012 London Olympics.

"There's no decision as yet," one U.K. Sport insider told ATR, "but there have been some very positive steps forward in the past 48 hours."

Clearly, if in these distressed times the British government is able to find an extra $50 million towards performance funding, then the amounts required for NADO may also be forthcoming after all. "We are still hopeful of being able to launch in October 2009," said the ever-optimistic U.K. Sport source.

WADA Requests Daily Doping Test Window for Athletes

A request for athletes to provide authorities with a daily one-hour window for drug testing has been included by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in its 2009 standards.

According to the revised anti-doping guidelines, athletes must provide authorities one hour a day during which they must be available for testing or risk being penalized for missing a test.

Under current guidelines, athletes fill out forms four times a year listing their daily schedule and can be tested at any time, with a phone call from an anti-doping worker. Before the test, all that is needed to set up an appointment.

WADA has also changed its rule on doping sanctions, changing from a two-year ban for first-time offenders regardless of the violation to a more flexible approach that includes up to four years for first-time cheaters who commit severe offenses, but more leeway for athletes who get caught on technicalities or used banned substances that aren’t meant to enhance performance.

Litigious Cyclist Banned

Kayle Leogrande received a two-year ban from the United States Anti Doping Agency (USADA) for doping, months after he sued the agency to prevent it from testing his urine sample for drugs.

In January, Leogrande filed an injunction against USADA to prevent the agency from testing his backup sample for drugs, after he failed his first test.

USADA then scrapped plans to test for drugs and obtained a "nonanalytical positive" through witness reports and other such evidence.

"It's another case where athletes are coming forward and relying on us to take their evidence German hockey player Florian Busch will be fined instead of suspended for refusing a drug test. (Getty Images)to help the playing field," USADA chief executive officer Travis Tygart said.

German Hockey Player Escapes Ban for Refusing Test

German national team hockey player Florian Busch will not be banned by the German Ice Hockey Federation for refusing to take a doping test.

Busch, who played for Germany at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, faced a possible two-year ban for refusing to produce a sample when officials from the German National Anti-Doping agency arrived unannounced at his home March 6, though he did agree to be tested several hours later.

Instead, the federation fined Busch $6,416, ordered him to do 56 hours of community service and gave him an official warning. A German Olympic Committee arbitration panel upheld the original fine, ruling that the German Ice Hockey Federation had not adopted the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) anti-doping code.

…Briefs

…The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced Olympic cyclist Mark French won a defamation lawsuit against an Australian radio station that accused him of being a drug cheat. ( Martin Bernetti/AFP/Getty Images)the members of its Standing Committees on Monday. The committees play a key advisory role in policy and priority development in the fight against doping. View the committee membershiphere.

…Olympic cyclist Mark French won a defamation lawsuit against an Australian radio station that accused him of being a drug cheat. A jury awarded him more than $260,000 after they heard a recording of a 2004 broadcast that called French "a dirty, stinking, dobbing cyclist." French was found to have failed a drug test but his name was cleared after he appealed the case.

…The Italian Olympic Committee has banned cyclist Emanuele Sella one year for doping. Sella, the top climber in this year’s Giro d’Italia, tested positive in July for a new version of the blood booster EPO in an out-of-competition test. Sella received a reduced ban instead of the usual two-year suspension because he has been cooperating with the authorities.

… Italian cyclist Marta Bastianelli appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to overturn her one-year ban for testing positive for a stimulant. Bastianelli was suspended by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) in October after testing positive for flenfluramine at the Under 23 European cycling championships in Verbania, Italy in July. She was also dropped from the Italian team for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Media Watch

Former WADA chief Richard Pound has an interview with German newspaper der Spiegel where he says doping rings are run like the mafia.

Written by Ed Hula III and Greg Oshust.