The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) yesterday made a conciliatory move regarding Michelle de Bruin's appeal hearing and appeared to defuse any problems that were threatening to derail the process.
According to a CAS official, February 5th is not a binding date for her hearing against a four-year ban handed down by the governing body in swimming FINA for tampering with a urine sample.
"It was a proposed date for the appeal hearing," said the CAS official. "But it has not been confirmed. The three arbitrators, for example, are travelling around the world at the moment and it may not suit them either. We don't know if the date is suitable to all parties. If it is not then we must try to find a date that is suitable."
Peter Lennon, de Bruin's solicitor, expressed concern over the date earlier this week as they believed they had not the required documents to engage with CAS. They were also unsure of procedural issues regarding the appeal and said they would not take part until such issues were sorted out to their satisfaction.
Lennon claimed that documents involving the testers, the Barcelona laboratory and FINA were essential to their case and that they did not yet have possession of these documents.
He also argued that it was normal to have a preliminary meeting before such hearings. This too was not ruled out by CAS.
"A preliminary meeting before the appeal may become part of the discussions. We may have two hearings or we may have one hearing," said the official. "We want all parties to agree on these issues."
CAS were in a comparatively lenient mood yesterday when they fixed the suspension for doping of Olympic judo champion Djamel Bouras at 15 months, thus overruling a decision by the international judo federation (FIJ).
Bouras, who tested positive for the banned substance nandrolone in a random test in October 1997, was originally handed a two-year ban - with one year suspended - by the French judo federation. But on completion of the ban last October, FIJ wanted to prolong Bouras' suspension for another year.
The Lausanne court ruled he was free to compete while it studied the case.
But CAS found that "the presumption of doping constituted by the results of the analyses were not overturned by the athlete".
Bouras said: "I'm very disappointed. I'm a person who is innocent. I'm being harassed. I see someone like (Czech tennis player Petr) Korda who says he took nandrolone unknowingly and his federation does nothing. I'm the only one getting hit."
