Cadogan, Walker, Christie guilty

The Arbitration Panel of the International Amateur Athletics Federation, meeting in Monte Carlo, has reached a decision regarding the cases of three British athletes Gary Cadogan, Doug Walker and Linford Christie.

The panel believes that UK Athletics misdirected itself and reached an erroneous conclusion when clearing these athletes. As a result, it confirmed that all three committed doping offences and that the following sanctions will be applied:

Gary Cadogan: a minimum of two years suspension starting from 28 November 1998.

Doug Walker: a minimum of two years suspension starting from 1 December 1998.

Linford Christie: a minimum of two years suspension starting from 13 February 1999.

Gary Cadogan recorded an adverse finding on 28 November 1998 but was cleared of any doping offence by UK Athletics on 10 September 1999. The IAAF Council decided to refer the case to arbitration on 18-19 November 1999.

Doug Walker recorded an adverse finding on 1 December 1998 but was cleared by UK Athletics on 28 July 1999. This case was also referred to arbitration on 18-19 November 1999.

Linford Christie recorded an adverse finding on 13 February 1999 but was cleared by UK Athletics on 10 September 1999. Again, this case was referred to arbitration on 18-19 November 1999.

The samples provided by all these athletes had contained metabolites of Nandrolone - a prohibited anabolic agent. The accepted level of Nandrolone in men has been fixed at 2 ng/ml. In the case of Cadogan the level was 10.6 ng/ml. In the case of Walker the level was 12.59 ng/ml and in the case of Christie the level was 200 ng/ml.

The Arbitration Panel also carefully considered the evidence of the "Aberdeen Paper" presented by UK Athletics. The key argument of this Paper was that the ingestion of dietary supplements (that may not themselves contained prohibited substances) combine with vigorous exercise to result in the production of an elevated concentration of Nandrolone metabolites in body fluids.

The Arbitration Panel decided that no conclusion could be drawn at this stage of the Aberdeen research to exonerate the athletes.

The decision of the Arbitration Panel is final and binding on all parties.

The nine members of the Arbitration Panel were elected at the Congress in Seville from candidates proposed by the Member Federations of the IAAF. All are noted experts in juridical matters. They are completely independent of the IAAF. Once the nine members are known, they elect a Chairman who select the other two members who will act as judges at each Arbitration hearing.

In the case of the Britons, the two judges were Lin Kok Loh of Singapore and Monty Hacker of South Africa. The current chairman of the Arbitration Panel is Christoph Vedder of Germany.

The IAAF has also decided to refer the cases of Mark Richardson (GBR) and Gabor Dobos (HUN) to the Arbitration Panel, which should meet again before the Olympic Games.