CAS imposes 12 months ban on Russian biathlete, Timofey Lapshin

Admin l Friday, April 23, 2021

LAUSANNE, Switzerland – The Court of Arbitration(CAS) has founded Russia biathlete affiliated with the Korean Biathlon Union, Timofey Lapshin guilty of Anti-doping rule violation  and consequently sanctioned him with a twelve months period of ineligibility starting April 23, 2021.

“ Timofey Lapshin is found guilty of an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) in accordance with Article 2.2 of the 2012 International Biathlon Union Anti-Doping Rules (IBU ADR)”, CAS said.

Consequently all competitive results obtained by Timofey Lapshin at the 10km sprint in Izhevsk on 21 December 2013 are disqualified with all resulting consequences (including forfeiture of medals, points and prizes).

In September 2020, the IBU informed the Athlete of newly discovered evidence concerning the sample provided by him during an in-competition doping control conducted by the Russia AntiDoping Agency at the “Izhevsk Rifle” competition held in Izhevsk, Russia in December 2013.

On reanalysis, the sample had been found to contain tuaminoheptane, a specified substance under the 2013 World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List.

According to CAS, the Sole Arbitrator determined that the source of the prohibited substance was a nasal spray (which was identified by the Athlete on his Doping Control Form that accompanied his sample taken in 2013) and the anti-doping rule violation was not disputed by the Athlete.

The Sole Arbitrator found that the Athlete benefitted from a reduction in the otherwise applicable two-year sanction since he had been able to establish to the comfortable satisfaction of the Sole Arbitrator how the prohibited substance entered his body and that he did not intend to enhance his sport performance or cheat.

This said, the Athlete was considered at fault for knowingly ingesting a prohibited substance out-of-competition despite his mistaken belief that the substance would be washed out of his body before his next competition.

The Sole Arbitrator considered the Athlete to have a “normal” degree of fault which justified a 12-month period of ineligibility and the disqualification of any results obtained by the Athlete at the 10km sprint in Izhevsk on 21 December 2013.