The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has not yet set a deadline for reviewing the disqualification case of Latvian biathlete Andrejs Rastorgujevs, confirmed CAS to the press service of LETA.
In September, CAS sentenced Rastorguyev to 18 months of disqualification for anti-doping rule violations. The Latvian biathlete had 21 days to appeal the sentence.
The CAS confirmed to LETA that it had received Rastorguyeva’s application for an appeal and that the review process had begun.
“The date of the hearing has not yet been set and it is not possible at this stage to say when a final decision could be taken,” CAS said.
The disqualification took effect on March 11 this year, and the decision, which is still in force, prevents Rastorguyev from participating in the Beijing Olympics.
Also, all the results achieved after July 1, 2020 have been annulled, thus Rastorgujev will lose the title of European champion in the individual distance.
In March, the Biathlon Integrity Unit (BIU) imposed a temporary disqualification on the 33-year-old athlete for not being in the notified locations three times in 12 months and not being available for doping control. At the Athlete’s request, the BIU referred the case to CAS, which appointed arbitrators who formed a disciplinary commission to hear the case.
Rastorguyev explained the anti-doping rule violation as a technical error. In a statement in March, the biathlete emphasized that the IBU’s decision did not come as a complete surprise, but he hoped until the last moment that he would listen to it and evaluate all the facts.
The first violation was detected in October 2019, and the second in June 2020. CAS found that in the third case – in September 2020 – Rastorgujev had not provided complete information that would meet the testing standards, thus in this case, too, he could not be reached at the specified place and time. Given that the third violation was not as serious as the first two cases, the arbitral tribunal decided to reduce the sentence from 24 months to 18 months.
Under the World Anti-Doping Code, the Athlete is responsible for the correct and accurate location. Violation of such rules may be subject to the same disqualification as doping.
As stated in the IBU Integrity Rules, if an Athlete is found guilty, the maximum term for this type of violation is two years of disqualification with the option to reduce it to one year. The period of disqualification may be reduced by determining the degree of fault of the athlete.
Rastorgujev finished the 2020/2021 World Cup season in the 30th position. In the second half of the season, he won a successful world championship and won gold in the individual distance of the European Championships.
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