AOC bans shooter Adams for 2 years over diuretic
Greg Buckle, Reuters, Melbourne, Australia
The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) has suspended shooter Phillip Adams for two years for testing positive for a banned diuretic at last year's Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
The AOC sent Adams a letter earlier this month to confirm the two-year ban, AOC spokesman Mike Tancred said on Sunday.
The ban comes less than a month after Australia's sporting officials received widespread criticism for suspending cricketer Shane Warne for one year after the country's leading wicket-taker tested positive for a banned diuretic.
Adams was controversially allowed to compete at the Games last July and August after an Australian Shooting Association (ASA) anti-doping tribunal found him guilty of using a banned drug but said the substance, used to treat high blood pressure, would not assist the athlete.
The International Shooting Federation also ruled Adams could compete in England.
"The two-year ban will be enforced unless he appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport by Tuesday, where the penalty can be lessened on appeal but not dismissed," Tancred said.
He said the ban would start from June 2002 when the sample was collected, and expire in June 2004, a month before the ASA will be required to nominate its team for the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Warne, one of cricket almanac Wisden's five players of the century, faced an Australian Cricket Board (ACB) anti-doping committee hearing last month.
The 33-year-old leg spinner's 12-month ban provoked international criticism led by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) chairman Dick Pound, who expressed surprise and dismay that Warne did not receive the ACB's minimum two-year ban.
The case of World Cup-winning rugby union winger Ben Tune, who used the banned drug probenecid to treat a knee injury in 2001 before the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) concealed details of the case from the International Rugby Board (IRB), also provoked international criticism, particularly from southern hemisphere rivals South Africa.
Tune's use of the banned drug was revealed by a Brisbane newspaper last year, prompting the ARU to admit it had kept details of the case from the IRB and that it should have been more forthcoming. The winger escaped a ban.
Tough new laws to combat drug cheats in sport were set in place on March 5 at an anti-doping summit in Copenhagen. WADA's new code was ushered in unanimously by sports federations worldwide and received strong backing from governments globally.
A major feature of the new guidelines means athletes guilty of serious doping offenses will be hit by a mandatory two-year ban barring "exceptional circumstances".
Australia's Federal Sports Minister Senator Rod Kemp boasted this week of the nation's leading role in anti-doping policies worldwide.
The Australian government is pushing for an independent tribunal to preside over anti-doping hearings following last month's controversial decision to hand Warne a ban of only 12 months, Kemp said.