The Arbitration Tribunal for Sport in Lausanne (CAS) has published the justification of the ruling in the case of Kamila Walijewa. According to the 41-page document, the concentration of the forbidden substance trimetazidine detected in the Russian figure skater was 2.1 ng / ml. – This is a low value, which confirms the line of defense of Walijewa’s lawyers, who explained that the banned substance was found in the body of a 15-year-old girl after she “drank from one glass with her grandfather” – we read on the sportschau.de portal.
Mother’s testimony, drugs in my grandfather’s car
Public transcripts show that the ice skater’s mother testified before CAS that the daughter meets her grandfather regularly, both before and after training. She also visited him before the Russian championship in December, during which she obtained a positive anti-doping test result.
At the hearing, the defenders of the ice skater used pictures which, in their opinion, show the packaging of the drug “TRIMETAZIDINE MV” in grandfather Walijewa’s car. One tablet of the drug contains 35 mg of active ingredient.
The lawyers also presented the opinion of the medical expert, Andrei Sholinski. He concluded that trimetazidine is available by prescription, is forbidden to give it to children, and can cause side effects such as dizziness and imbalance. This, in turn, would be counterproductive in preparations for competing at the Olympics.
Expert opinions
Another doping expert, Dr. Eduard Besuglow, referred at the hearing before the Arbitration Tribunal to the study of the use of trimetazidine among Polish athletes, carried out by Polish scientists. According to Besuglow, the research of our athletes shows that taking one tablet of trimetazidine (35 mg) in the anti-doping test carried out the next day leads to the value from 1000 to 9000 ng / ml. A concentration of 2.1 ng / ml, as in the case, would in his opinion support a single dose approximately five to seven days prior to sampling.
By the way, in the Polish anti-doping community, trimetazidine is sometimes called “Polish meldonium” [meldonium to popularna substancja dopinguj±ca, stosowa³a j± m.in. Maria Szarapowa – przyp. red.]. Why? Once, that, as Dr. Andrzej Pokrywka, an expert on doping, told Sport.pl, “Poland contributed to the fact that trimetazidine was on the list of prohibited substances by the World Anti-Doping Agency.” Two, the first case the conviction in Poland for doping concerned a trainer who gave ski runner Marceli Marcisz just trimetazidine a few years ago
Returning to Walijewa, her lawyers admitted that the 15-year-old would submit a request to test the B sample, including because during the analysis there could have been a technical error committed by the anti-doping laboratory in Stockholm.
Doping expert Mario Thevis from the Cologne laboratory suggested in an interview with ARD television to analyze the hair of a young Russian woman. – Thanks to such an analysis, it is possible to distinguish very well whether it was a matter of repeated intake of trimetazidine in larger amounts or a random single dose. The breakdown products of this substance remain in the hair for a long time, Thevis says.
Walijewa passed doping control on December 25 during the Russian championship. According to the CAS ruling, her sample arrived at the Stockholm laboratory four days later. However, the positive result was announced on February 8, already during the Olympic Games in Beijing, and also after the team competition, in which the 15-year-old and her colleagues from the Russian Olympic Committee won the gold medal.
What’s next?
The International Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) claims that the culprit of the confusion is the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), which should indicate, when returning a sample of Walijewa to the laboratory, that the examination of her result, as a competitor going to the Olympics, has priority character. The Russians did not do that. German media claim that the study of the skater sample could have taken so long also because of the numerous coronavirus cases among workers in the Stockholm laboratory.
Despite the appeal of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), WADA and the International Skating Union, CAS admitted Walijewa to the Olympic competition of soloists. The 15-year-old led after the short program, but eventually came fourth, making many mistakes in the free program.
The Olympics end on Sunday, but this is not the end of the Kamiła Walijewa affair. In the next few weeks, the tribunal in Lausanne will discuss the legality of her performance in the Chinese capital and whether she and her colleagues from the Russian ice skating team should receive an Olympic gold medal. The medal ceremony after the team competition was canceled until the 15-year-old doping scandal was cleared up.
Source: Sport
Tristin is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
