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| 24 May 2006 - CAS | |
| Court of Arbitration for Sport reduces suspension of Guillermo Canas to 15 months |
Lausanne, 23 May 2006 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has partially upheld the appeal filed by the Argentinean tennis player, Guillermo Cañas, against the decision of the Anti-doping Tribunal of the ATP Tour of 7 August 2005.
The Tribunal of the ATP Tour found that Guillermo Cañas tested positive for the prohibited substance hydrochlorothiazide (HCT) at the ATP tournament “Abierto Mexicano de Tenis” in Acapulco, Mexico on 21 February 2005. As a consequence, the Tribunal of the ATP Tour disqualified the Player from the Acapulco tournament and suspended him for a period of two years, effective from 11 June 2005. Furthermore, the Tribunal ordered the disqualification of the Player from the competitions he took part in between 21 February 2005 and 11 June 2005, with the exception of Roland Garros, a tournament during which he tested negative.
The Player filed an appeal with the CAS on 29 August 2005 to request the annulment of the ATP Tour decision. This matter was submitted to a panel composed of Ms Maidie Oliveau (USA), President, Mr Christopher Campbell (USA) and Mr Yves Fortier (Canada). The parties, their representatives and witnesses were heard by the Panel at a hearing in New York on 19 and 20 January 2006.
On the basis of the evidence submitted by the parties, the Panel of arbitrators found that the Player ingested a medication called “Rofucal”, delivered to him by the tournament staff in Acapulco although the tournament doctor prescribed a different medication for him. G.Cañas took the medication he received without reviewing the content of the box, even though he knew that the medication had been through several hands before being delivered to him. The Panel noted also that the doping control form completed by the Player did not list the medication prescribed by the tournament doctor.
The Panel considered that the Player was entitled to rely on the expertise of independent medical staff provided by the organisers of the Acapulco tournament. The arbitrators also emphasised the fact that a mistake in the delivery of the medication was made not by the Player, but rather by the tournament staff. However, the Panel considered that the Player had a duty of utmost caution after visiting the tournament doctor to ascertain whether the medication received was indeed the medication prescribed by the doctor.
In conclusion, the Panel was of the opinion that the negligence committed by the Player was not significant and decided that his period of ineligibility should be reduced by nine months, from two years to fifteen months. The suspension of G. Cañas which started on 11 June 2005 will come to end on 10 September 2006. In addition, the Panel decided that other than with respect to the Acapulco tournament, none of the results achieved by G.Canãs before 11 June 2005 should be disqualified.
The full text of the CAS Award is published below as a pdf, and on the CAS website www.tas-cas.org.
See also the original Tennis Anti-Doping Programme release on the decision in the case of Guillermo Canas.
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