Sprinter Kumarage
Sprinter Kalinga Kumarage has been cleared to resume his athletic career. The 400 metre runner was first suspended in 2019 over doping charges and then exonerated after a Sri Lanka Anti-Doping Agency (SLADA) disciplinary inquiry. But SLADA subsequently challenged that decision, only to have the Appeal Panel dismiss it this week, allowing Kumarage to compete again.The sprinter successfully proved that the test procedure was flawed and that the adverse finding was a result of the New Delhi-based laboratory’s failure to conform with the International Standard for Laboratories (ISL). The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) suspended the National Doping Testing Laboratory (NDTL) in 2019 for non-conformity with the ISL. Kumarage cited this in his defence.
The Appeal Panel, chaired by Additional Solicitor General, Sumathi Dharmawardena, PC, found that SLADA failed to prove to “comfortable satisfaction” that the departure from the required ISL did not cause the adverse findings.
Though the WADA Code based on the regime of strict liability imposes the burden on the athlete to ensure that no prohibited substance shall enter his body and, if so, the same will constitute an anti-doping rule violation, the panel has maintained that the appellant is bound to follow strict compliances with the WADA Code and the procedure set out in the ISL.
“The Appellant has failed to prove to the comfortable satisfaction of this Appeal Panel that the said departure from the required ISL did not cause the adverse findings of the respondent,” the decision signed by Mr. Dharmawardena stated.
“The Manager, Legal Affairs of WADA, stated that there is no evidence to support that this result may have been misreported,” it continued.
“However, in this instance, it is abundantly clear that NDTL has failed to follow strict compliance and maintained the required ISL. Due to the above-stated reasons I dismiss the appeal of the Appellant which has failed to disclose any grounds for appeal.”
Kumarage was exonerated of all charges after SLADA and WADA failed to establish that there were banned substances in his body or that he has violated anti-doping rules after an extensive inquiry last year.
However, SLADA appealed against the decision, requesting the Appeal Panel to enforce a four-year ban from athletics on Kumarage, a promising runner.
Kumarage was tested positive for ‘dehydrochlormethyltestosterone’, an anabolic steroid, at the 55th Army Meet in 2019. Kumarage’s ‘A’ sample resulted in an adverse finding on December 11, 2019, two months after the sample was collected. The ‘B’ sample also confirmed the ‘A’ sample findings in January 25, 2020. Kumarage was represented by President’s Counsel Dinal Philips,
The Appeal Panel also include Mr. Upali Samaraweera and Dr. Asela Mendis. Dinal Philips represented Kumarage at the inquiry.
Meanwhile, the panel has also dismissed the appeal by SLADA against teenage sprinter Chelsea Melani Bendarage, who was exonerated by the disciplinary panel over a technicality.
Chelsea had tested positive for the stimulants Oxandrolone and Epioxandrolone (metabolite of Xandrolone) at the National Sports Festival in 2019. She was cleared after a disciplinary hearing as she successfully established that her party bore no fault or negligence in consuming the protein supplement Nitro Tech which caused the adverse analytical finding.
Meanwhile, Ashen Dilshan, Sanath Jayasinghe, Kumara Wedagedara, Chanaka Jayasekera and Indika Perera had their appeals dismissed on the ground that they had initially admitted the offences.