Frankie Sheehan ban to be lifted

Frankie ban to be lifted

02/09/2003

By Conor George
Frankie Sheahan's two-year ban from world rugby has been lifted.

Sheahan's appeal was heard in Dublin yesterday by a three-man committee and their verdict was announced today, allowing Sheahan stake a late claim for inclusion in the Irish squad for the World Cup, which will be announced this Sunday.

Sources close to the Sheahan camp were in celebratory mood following the decision which brought to an end three months of misery for the Munster and Irish hooker.

Sheahan, who has asthma, was suspended in July after testing positive for the banned substance salbutamol, which he uses as part of his medication.

Sheahan immediately lodged an appeal to the ban, which was heard yesterday and the announcement clearing him was welcomed today by his father.

"We were delighted with the way the appeal went," Frank Sheahan senior said.

"We always felt the decision to ban Frankie was totally and absolutely wrong."

from BBC Sport

Ireland hooker Frankie Sheahan could yet play in the World Cup after his two-year drugs ban was reduced to three-months following an appeal.
The Munster player tested positive for the drug Salbutamol after the province's Heineken Cup semi-final against Toulouse in April.

He was then handed a two-year ban by the European Rugby Cup tribunal which would have ruled him out of this year's World Cup.

However, an appeal by Sheahan was heard by a three-man European Rugby Cup panel on Monday where a decision was taken to reduce the ban to three months which has already elapsed.

He has also been fined 5,000 Euro.

The ERC adjudication accepted new evidence presented by Sheahan which argued that the player's dehydration in the heat of Toulouse had given rise to the higher levels of Salbutamol.

"On that basis, while the Appeal Tribunal upheld the finding of a doping offence under the ERC Anti-Doping Programme, it concluded that it would be appropriate to exercise its discretion to reduce the two-year sanction imposed by the Judicial Tribunal," said an ERC statement.

The ERC rejected Sheahan's assertion that the failed drugs test had merely been "an administrative oversight".

He claimed he had forgotten to properly inform authorities that he was using a Ventolin inhaler to combat his asthma.

"Both the player and the management of Munster were grossly negligent in the way in which the Player Consent Form was completed and the penalty must be severe to deter such a cavalier approach in the future," added the statement.

The original tribunal found that the player's level of Salbutamol was 20 times higher in the sample collected after the Toulouse game than was the case after the quarter-final tie against Leicester.

Sheahan, who made his Ireland debut three years ago and has won 13 caps, continually protested his innocence.

The Appeal Committee consisted of Jeff Blackett (chairman, England), former England prop Jeff Probyn, and Dr Roger Evans from Wales.

Ireland's 30-man World Cup squad will be announced next Sunday and Sheahan, with the three-month ban having already elapsed, could now edge out Ulster's Paul Shields for the third hooker position.

A request by Sheahan for the payment of his costs in taking the appeal was refused by the tribunal.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/

Don't know all the details myself but surprised by the decision. Thought Sheahan was supposed to have the equivalent of 30 doses of his inhaler when tested?

If it was Athletics he'd have been banned - rugby does not take drug testing very seriously.

Its time for athletes to be banned if tested positive whatever the excuse...

As I understand it, to get a doping effect from inhaling, you'd need to use 2 or 3 canisters in one go which would be a couple of hundred doses. It was established that the medication was inhaled so as I understand it, it wasn't a doping offence but a fialure to fill out the forms correctly. The high concentration seems to have been because of de-hydration after the match so the sample had less water so the drug would look more concentrated.

The number of athletes in all sports who claim to have asthma is shocking. I haven't got exact global figures but I know that somewhere in the region of 25% of all professional French sportspeople claim to have it. In most sports athletes register supposedly medicinal drugs so they can talk their way out of positive drugs tests but if you saw the amount of stuff your typical sprinter registers you'd ask how they could walk because they must be exceptionally ill people if the need all this medication.

57% of riders in this years Tour de France were asthmatics.

Strange how many top class athletes are not restricted by asthma.

It does appear though that whatever the rights or wrongs of Sheahan using salbutamol it was a clerical error on his part not to declare for the ERC game as he has declared it at numerous other times.