Boa Takes Drug Cheat Fight To Cas

The British Olympic Association (BOA) is set take its fight to keep a
lifetime ban from the Olympic Games for drugs cheats to the Court of
Arbitration for Sport (Cas).

The BOA currently imposes a lifetime Olympic ban on any British athlete banned for more than six months for a doping offence.

However,
the BOA is the only national Olympic committee to do so and the policy
contradicts the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (Wada) global anti-doping
code.

Should the BOA lose its appeal, athletes including sprinter Dwain Chambers could compete at the 2012 London Olympics.

Both the BOA and Wada are looking for Cas to make a decision before the end of April 2012.

In
October, Cas ruled that the International Olympic Committee’s doping
rule, which barred offenders who had received bans of longer than six
months from competing in the next Olympic Games, was unenforceable –
allowing Olympic 400m champion LaShawn Merrit to defend his gold medal
at London 2012.