Overview:

Anti-doping – boldenone and testosterone – athlete admitted violation and accepted 2 year suspension was mandatory penalty but submitted suspension should start from earlier date of positive test notification and not date of Tribunal hearing – no formal provisional suspension had been sought by athlete’s sport but athlete voluntarily not competed since notification of positive test – whether commencement of suspension can be backdated earlier than hearing date in absence of formal provisional suspension – Tribunal concluded (on its interpretation of rules and also following the approach of the Tribunal in previous cases) that suspensions can be backdated earlier than hearing date, despite athlete not being formally provisionally suspended – in certain situations voluntarily withdrawal from competition may be akin to voluntarily accepted provisional suspension and may justify starting the suspension earlier than the Tribunal hearing date – Tribunal decided that appropriate for 2 year suspension to start from the date of notification of positive test in the circumstances of this case – NSO President advised athlete not to compete after positive test notification and athlete explicitly accepted this advice – NSO considered it unnecessary to formally apply to have athlete provisionally suspended as explicitly accepted their advice – 2 years’ ineligibility imposed commencing from 22 July 2008.